TDM #6

[labyrinmods]

Arrival / Enchanted Garden

Whether it be sleep or death, you feel your eyes close, and as your body begins to let go, you see a barn owl that is flying through the darkness, soon sweeping you across the clouded sky. You feel yourself mouth the words, “I wish, I wish..” and utter your deepest and darkest desire.

When you regain consciousness, you’ll find you are in an unfamiliar place with no recognition of how you arrived here. You have the clothes on your back, but nothing else. No weapons and if you had a particular superpower, you’ll notice it is missing. All you have is a satchel with a piece of bread, a vial of water and a potion. The potion could be red, blue or golden. There are no instructions about these potions other than two words: Drink Me.

Will you drink it or not?

There is a parchment, handwritten, and it simply gives you a welcoming:

“Welcome to my Labyrinth. Per our agreement, you have consented to live your life here for an undetermined amount of time. In exchange, I will grant you the wish that you desire the most.”

You’re in a garden, surrounded by flowers and plants– most of which you cannot identify. However, there are a few that you can make out: holly and bluebells.

Standing too close to the bluebells for too long or smelling them will make a Dreamer unable to refuse requests. This can last for however long a player may wish, whether it be for a few days or just a few minutes. The holly, however, also gives off a strange effect when getting too close to it: Dreamers will feel compelled to be more helpful & outgoing, no matter how gloomy and closed off they are. This effect can also last for a few days or a few minutes-- it is up to the player!

Eventually, Dreamers will find their way out of the Enchanted Garden and into the city of Somnius, whether it be by following the alluring light or on their own.

Webby's Sleepover Extravaganza

It’s funny how if you ask for something, sometimes that’s all it takes to have it given to you. Maybe Webby is just that lucky, or Vaeros is feeling just that generous the day it’s requested but for two days and one night only in the beginning of the month of November, a large castle stands where one didn’t before. It’s grand in that it doesn’t need repairs like some of the available housing does, but it’s certainly nothing too awe-inspiring. But, it’s big enough for its purpose—a sleepover party for every inhabitant new or old.

During the night a few days before the party, EVERY person receives a handwritten invitation to this sleepover blowout. It doesn’t matter who, young or old. For those who wake up in Somius after the invitations arrive, they’ll find an invitation just for them in their pocket or satchel, like they were always meant to be invited from the beginning.
Decorations are bright and colorful, spanning the whole rainbow. One giant room full of cots and sleeping bags, blankets and pillows has been made to be the centerpiece of the whole affair. This is where most of the partygoers will mingle and play games, if they’re not too busy with one of the other activities located in one of the other rooms nearby. There’s plenty of room to wander, though any room that has not been decorated and made up for the party is locked down completely with no way in. There are, of course quiet spaces provided for those who need a quick getaway from all the partying. Or maybe going outside for a stroll in the night garden would be calming too?

For those who don’t have anything appropriate to sleep in, pajamas are even provided. But they might be a little silly, since beggars can’t be choosers. Who wants the unicorn fuzzy pajamas?

Games Galore - There’s plenty to play with, at Webby’s insistence (and by insistence we mean she gives you the biggest doe-eyes you’ve ever seen) and she’s more than happy to give you overly-detailed means on how to play the following -

🎉Twister - a huge sheet blotted with colorful spots has been laid on the floor, along with a square with similar colors and a spinny arrow. The rules are simple - one person spins the arrow, and where it lands you put your foot or hand. First to fall loses, so amp up the embarrassment - er, fun as you all get tangled up with each other.
🎉Truth Or Dare - Two options, one chance for chaos. Surely you’re all going to be mature individuals and not ask mortifying questions or dangerous dares.
🎉Pin The Tail On The Donkey - Yes, Webby’s sole guardian was a woman whose idea of fun was from the 1950s, how did you know? But she’s also put up optional sheets of different animals to stick their tail/bodyparts on while you’re blindfolded, including past threats like zombies and skeksis.

Bountiful Buffet - The best way to stay up late is to stuff yourself silly with sugar, which is why the dining room table is loaded with all kinds of desserts. Remy and Aurora have supplied some of their own sugary confections, and you’re more than welcome to have added your own creations to the buffet. Just don’t start any food fights. At least not where Webby can see it!

As though the castle (or whoever ACTUALLY owns it) wants to help assist the party atmosphere, those who partake of the food might feel a little more inclined to be friendly and amenable to party activities. You know, just for those gloomy gusses out there. There are no drawbacks to this little bit of fairy dust, just a little bit of social greasing, you know?

Makeover Makeover Makeover - Vil has ever so kindly offered his beauty supplies for those of you who want to experiment with some new looks, and you’re free to have brought your own. Test it out on one another or try it out yourself. Then again, when he’s not looking, what’s to stop you from trying to paint yourself up like a B-movie monster?

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark - Some of you may have had more than enough of your share of frights due to last month’s… fun, but surely you can handle a bit more fright? In a dark room with only one light torch, gather in a circle and share a spooky story from times gone by. Just be prepared for that one person who always sneaks up from behind and goes BOO at the right time. It’s inevitable.

Pillow Fight - Pick a side or be a lone warrior, grab a pillow and show no mercy! The last one standing wins! The only rule is your pillow is your sole weapon! In fact, there seem to be more pillows available than there are people here, so let the feathers fly! If the castle magically produces more, who’s to say? Shrug and keep the battle going!

Bonfire of Growth

CW: memory share, character specific trauma

Some may be aware that harvest season is a season of growth and not just in the cultivating sense. Townsfolk take this time to evaluate themselves and really think about things in their lives that have potentially been holding them back from being their strongest and truest selves. With the newly accessible Indigo Beach providing plenty of room for multiple bonfires, Dreamers will see several bonfires stretched across the dark blue sand, logs and rocks assembled around each one, beckoning Dreamers near.

As soon as they step out on the beach’s sands, characters will find a slip of paper on their person (in their pocket, up their sleeve.. any readily accessible portion of their clothing.) On that piece of paper, they will have a personalized phrase catered to them, making them remember a painful memory that has held them back in some way. The phrase can be anything players want it to be as long as it jogs the memory back into the head of their characters. Those with a paper slip will feel compelled to sit around the bonfire and contemplate their memory; they also will feel encouraged to share that memory with anyone who is sitting nearby. If characters choose to throw the paper slip into the fire, those who have heard the story of their grief will have a very vivid visual of the event in their mind’s eye along with feeling the exact pain they went through as well.

Once these memories are shared and characters take a moment to grieve, they will feel significantly better about the past situation that caused them so much pain. This can be temporary or permanent, it’s up to the player.

Although refreshments won’t be provided, Dreamers are encouraged to bring their own. And yes, something adjacent to s’mores can be something characters may bring.

Suspicious Message #4

On the morning of the 1st, some dreamers will receive a message from an unknown user.

Who or what from home do you miss the most?

They will feel compelled to respond with a truthful answer, as if their brains had gone into a trance, and before they know it, their response will be there for everyone to see. It cannot be deleted or changed. The user will not respond personally, but you get the sense they are definitely reading.

[ This is an additional network option for characters to interact with. Feel free to add a network prompt into any of your top levels. If you do not want to interact with this prompt, simply assume your character did not get the message. All threads are public unless actively privated by characters. We generally encourage threadjacking and engagement, so feel free to mention if threadjacking is fine with you so that others are aware. Note that the NPC will not be actively responding. ]

OOC

Welcome to the labyrinthum TDM! All events are game canon. New characters (invited or not) and old characters alike are welcome to play in it. Existing characters can start their own logs or network posts for the event if they wish to.

New and Old characters are welcome to top level on the TDM. Please state in the header if you are a new or old player! Also, new characters may link their top levels under the new character comment so they are easier to find. Thanks for your cooperation!

New characters will arrive depowered and with only their clothing, and will be given a satchel with a crystal pendant, a communication device, some water and bread and a magic potion. If they drink the potion, they will manifest an elemental, healing or animal transformation ability.

With the exception of Castle Vaeros, characters are free to go as they please, so feel free to place them in any of the locations available on the map.

You can find more information about the game here. Any questions regarding the TDM can go under the comment below. Special thank you to Melissa for the player plot and prompts!

Comments

blake belladonna ╳ rwby ╳ existing player/character

[fromshadows]

i. sleepover

The black cat onesie that Blake's been provided as pajamas are a little on the nose, but she doesn't think she can complain. They're really comfy!

She had fawned over Vil's makeup supplies -- she brought some eyeshadow from him the other month, and she loves it -- and she's wound up sitting cross-legged in a pile of fuzzy blankets, doing someone's nails. "Black, of course, goes with anything," she says, showing off her own nails in black, "but we could definitely be more adventurous with you."

Sorting through the little basket of nail polishes she'd burrowed, she comes up with a bright emerald, and holds it up against her company's face. "Hmmm. This could be your color. Unless you want something else? Maybe alternating colors? I could even do designs if I find a small enough brush in here."

ii. bonfire

(cw: abusive relationship, grooming, coerced affection)

Nobody else will ever love you the way I do.

Blake's been staring at the words on her piece of paper for what feels like hours now. She knew this place could get into their memories; their wants, their dreams, their most personal, private thoughts. But it's never dug this deep for Blake before, and she's left trying to pick up the pieces of her suddenly shaken confidence. Seated next to a bonfire, she's tucked in small, shoulders hunched, feline ears flat against her hair, fringe hiding her eyes with her head ducked.

She'd thought she'd come to terms with... him. He's dead and gone at her own hand, and she's grown so much in the space he left behind. She's been able to open up to her friends, to find some self-confidence, to find the bravery to laugh and dance and be a little silly sometimes. She's fallen in love again, too, a deep and affectionate and healthy love, even if she hasn't quite gotten up the courage to admit her feelings for Yang.

And yet. He still haunts her. That wound isn't fully healed. She doesn't know if it ever will.

Blake jumps a little when someone sits down next to her, and she tucks the piece of paper between her hands to hide it, staring down at her heels digging into the dark blue sand. "It's a lovely night, isn't it?" she tries for normalcy, forcing a little smile. "A lot of people seem... a little distracted, though." She hasn't missed that other people are in the same predicament as her, absorbed in memories.

Sleepover

[raavashing]

[Wan has never had any kind of make-up done for him so he's excited about all of it. When Blake suggests he could do multi-colored for his nails (so cool!) he grinned brightly and nodded.]

Yes! A different color for each, please!

[With ten fingers and ten toes, that would be twenty colors!]

[fromshadows]

"Oh, very ambitious," Blake says approvingly, and starts laying out different colors, putting the bottles in a row on the floor next to them. Even though she's doing twenty different colors, she wants to make sure they all look good together!

Once she's done, she tugs a cushion into her lap (a brightly colored squishy unicorn orb, of course, because that seems to be the theme here), and pats it. "Lay your hand here, palm down, and we'll get started. Make sure you don't bump your nails into anything for the next few minutes, it takes a little bit to dry."

Blake unscrews the cap of the first color, the bright emerald, and looks at him thoughtfully. "You must be new, I haven't seen you around before."

[raavashing]

Wan is more than happy to put his hand on the squishy, brightly colored orb. He wasn't sure what kind of animal or spirit it was supposed to be, but it was soft. Really soft. He can't help but squish it a little (a lot) with his hand before he stopped fidgeting with it enough for Blake to start painting.

"Yes!" he agreed. "I woke up in the place others call 'the garden'. From what I've been told, that's pretty normal for anyone who made an agreement."

[fromshadows]

Blake can hardly blame him for squishing the unicorn orb. It's very soft.

"It is," she assures. "I woke up there too, as did everyone else. We all get a satchel with a few different things in it, including an Oracle, a crystal necklace, and a potion. The potion gives you a magical power if you drink it, exactly what you get depends on what color you got given."

Eyes narrowed in concentration, she paints Wan's thumbnail in the shining emerald. Blake sets that color down, uncaps the next one -- a brilliant gold, she's going for jewel tones -- and starts on his next nail.

"I've been here a while," she says wryly. "So I'm happy to answer any questions, if you've got any."

Sleepover

[anything_grows]

Nail polish about the extent of makeup that Willow has ever worn before, so she doesn't mind it as much as some of the others. She examines the color that Blake holds up, really considering it.

"That is a really nice color." She is partial to greens herself. "But what kind of designs could you do?"

[fromshadows]

"It definitely suits you," Blake approves, though just in case, she starts fishing out other green shades that she has, just to see if any of them are better.

She hums thoughtfully. "Well, if we're going with a nature theme, which we definitely should, vines and flowers are pretty easy to do. I'm not an expert in doing nail designs, but simple designs are easy enough as long as you've got a steady hand and a small enough brush. Or we could just go with flat color, if you prefer!"

[anything_grows]

Willow takes a look at the other colors that Blake places out, picking up a couple of the bottles to look at them closer.

"Hmm...I think vines would be really cool to try." She likes flowers too, but she imagines that people get flowers done on their nails pretty often. Not so much with vines. "If we're doing vines, though, I guess I'd have to pick a different color for the rest of the nail, so the green stands out better."

She could probably just use a different shade of green, but she really wanted to the vines to be visible.

[fromshadows]

"I did see-- where is it." Blake paws around the basket a bit more, and triumphantly retrieves another shade, a green so dark it almost looks black. "This one. If we pair this with a light green, that would look really good, I think. Or we could just go with straight up black for the background; black suits everyone."

Or so says Blake "Half Of What I Wear Is Black" Belladonna.

"Or, how about--" she starts, and then cuts herself off with a startled little yelp, eyes going wide and horrified as she beholds the massive bee that just bumbled over behind Willow. "Willow, don't move," she cautions, picking up a fluffy cushion with intent, "there's a giant bug behind you."

bonfire

[flatteries]

[ There is absolutely no way Inigo can just ignore this sight. Even if it hadn't been someone he'd know, Inigo would still have been drawn right over to someone looking so sad and hurt, sitting there by the bonfire by themselves.

But is is someone he knows. It's a friend. A good one. And seeing Blake just sitting there, looking so tiny.. It hurts, like someone wrapped a fist right around Inigo's heart and is currently squeezing it. This isn't the sort of way Blake should look, and Inigo can't even imagine what might have reduced his friend to this state.

So he doesn't hesitate to approach her, sitting down to her - and listening to Blake speak up. Inigo smiles at her, a soft and warm smile, but doesn't interrupt her attempt at normalcy until she's done speaking.

It's a little tempting to go along with the normalcy, since maybe it's what Blake wants, but.. ignoring the elephant in the room feels a little too bad when the elephant is this big and sad. ]

Hey, Blake.. [ His voice is just like his smile. Warm, and not very loud. ] It's okay if you don't want to talk about what's wrong. If you want to tell me, I'll listen, of course, but.. if it's too hard, maybe I could find some other way to cheer you up?

[ He shakes his head. ]

Either way, the choice's up to you. I'm right here.

[fromshadows]

"I don't even know where to start," Blake admits.

Inigo's gentle offer is more appreciated than she can put words to; he's a good friend, better than he probably thinks he is. His kind presence is exactly what Blake thinks she needs right now, someone unthreatening and generous and understanding. And yet... she can't help but worry. What if this changes his opinion of her?

"In my world, Faunus--" she gives a flick of her ears to demonstrate, "--are discriminated against. That's kind of putting it lightly. Labor exploitation is still a huge problem, with Faunus being kept in cages and being forced to work in mines or in fields. I could go on, but needless to say, it's bad." She gathers her knees to her chest, one cheek resting on her knee. "I was born into a rights movement called the White Fang, started by my dad. It was meant to champion equality for Faunus. I was holding a protest sign by the time I was old enough to read."

And gods, she could talk so much about that time. The protests. The humans that spat on them. The disgust from human law enforcement.

"When I was eleven or so, more extreme ideas were starting to rise in the group. My dad was doing his best to uphold the ideals of peace, but some people... some people were starting to think about getting back at the humans. Raiding the camps and taking the slaves by force. Stealing their ore and Dust. I was at a meeting, and there was a boy. He was older, late teens at the time. And I saw him crying."

Blake smiles sadly. "He'd gone on a mission to help some captive Faunus, and three of his friends had been killed by human mercenaries. He was beating the wall, mourning. And I was... spellbound. I think I fell in love then and there." She blows out a little sigh. "I could have never have anticipated how much he would change."

[flatteries]

.. I had no idea things were that bad. [ Inigo honestly admits.

Sure, they did talk about being self-conscious before and all, but.. he had no idea that there was such a huge story of oppression behind it on Blake's side. It makes him feel a little silly, only being so self-conscious out of natural innate shyness, whereas it had been something practically traumatic for her, by the sounds of it.

But even though it's a story about a world completely divorced from his own, Inigo still looks sad as he hears all of it. It's hard not to when the story is so awful already, when he can't help but imagine what Blake must have gone through back home.

He pauses for a moment, seeming to think, but then adds: ]

Did you and him, um.. fight together? For that cause? [ ... ] Before he changed?

cw abuse mentions

[fromshadows]

It's hardly Inigo's fault that he didn't know. Blake just hasn't told many people here about how bad Faunus oppression can get; it's not exactly casual conversation. But it's extremely relevant to the story she has to tell here.

"Yes. At first, he was my mentor. When I was twelve, my dad stepped down from leading the White Fang, and he and my mom left the group altogether. I stayed."

She skips over how she'd screamed at them, how she'd called them cowards and traitors, for preferring pacifist peace over actionable justice. She skips over how she hadn't seen them from then until very recently, and the guilt she's felt for years for treating them that way.

"Adam looked out for me. He protected me, and taught me everything he knew, from ethics to philosophy, and how to fight. The chapter of the White Fang that we were in was slowly growing... more violent. I got caught up in it. I justified it to an extent. But I never condoned murder of innocent humans, and that was what Adam started doing." She pauses briefly, eyes lit up by the bonfire, lost in thought. "At first he told me that it was self defense. And then it was an accident. He always had an excuse. He started getting so violent. And I believed him, every time.

"Our relationship turned romantic, later." There's a lot she's not mentioning. But she's here to talk about the specific memory, not the entire history of her relationship with him. "One night, when I was sixteen, we were on a raid to free some slaves from a Dust mine. He'd set the whole place on fire.

On the way out, a human security guard got the jump on me. Adam killed him. And I was just-- intoxicated. I couldn't think straight, I loved him so much. I was horrified, but I just kept making excuses for him. He took his mask off for me then, the mask he'd always worn since we met, and I told him I loved him. That I wasn't afraid of him. And with blood still drying on his shirt, he told me, nobody will ever love me the way he does."

When she finishes, her throat is so tight she doesn't know how she was able to get a word out, and she scrubs a sleeve over her eyes.

"Eventually he started killing so many people that I--" she breaks off, heaving a sigh. "I ran away. And it turned out to be the wrong thing to do."

Bonfire (probably the same one she's sharing with Thor in his thread, afterwards)

[calmandreasonable]

Blake was right, she was a good listener. Thor's already feeling a lot clearer in the head about things. He rubs the back of his neck. "I can listen too. If you want." He offers. Fair's fair, but more than that...Blake is just a friend at this point. Thor's getting more used to that concept now, more at home with how to navigate that kind of relationship. And Blake knows she can trust him. Has trusted him.

Having made his offer, he watches the fire and waits for the Faunus to decide whether or not she wants to take him up on it.

[fromshadows]

Blake's still recovering from all the emotions of Thor's story, and honestly, she'd forgotten entirely about her own quote from the past. She'd gotten so immersed in the tale of the Nine Realms and Thor's family, and Kratos, and all the deaths that had followed him. So when he offers to listen, Blake has to blink, and orient herself, opening the grip of her hands to reveal her own piece of paper.

"I hope you don't think differently of me after this," she sighs, ears flat. It had taken her a long time to talk about any of this to her team, even the most vague of outlines. "But I guess I should start at the start. Faunus like me, we're discriminated against in Remnant, which is kind of putting it lightly. Many companies use Faunus as slave labor, kept in cages and forced to work. Even for those of lucky to escape that fate, a lot of humans think of us as little more than animals."

She picks a stick up off the sand, prodding gently at the edge of the bonfire, pushing a log further in. "My dad was the founder of a group called the White Fang. It was meant to champion peace and equality. I was born into it; I was holding a protest sign as soon as I was old enough to read what it said. The humans were awful to us, but we kept at it, but... when I got older, I started to realize that some people in the White Fang weren't content with peace. They weren't content with sneaking the slaves out of the Dust mines at night. They wanted confrontation with the humans. They wanted to take their rights by force."

And even now, Blake can't really blame them. She'd bought into it as a kid, but murder had been her hard line. It still is.

"When I was eleven or so, I was at a meeting, with a raid leader updating everyone on the latest mission to free some Faunus. And I saw this boy, he was in his late teens at the time," Blake sighs, a sad little smile curling her lips, "he was off to the side. Crying. Pounding the wall in anger. He'd been a part of that raid, and three of his friends had been killed by human mercenaries. I think I fell in love then and there. He was so passionate, so... full of fire."

[calmandreasonable]

"Can't see how I'd do that." Thor replies, and he really can't. There's nothing Blake could have in her past, nothing that she could have done that would amount to the trail of bodies Thor has left in his wake. She's not given up on him. How could he not return that kindness?

"There's not...nothin' to that." He does concede, after hearing about how White Fang gradually became more militant. In the end, what had finished Asgard wasn't peaceful negotiation, but the other Realms banding together to stand up to All-Father. "Sometimes you gotta fight." Thor's fought too much in the past. A lot of why Asgard had to be destroyed came down to that fighting. "My problem was, I never knew when to stop, or how." Maybe it still is, but now at least he's trying to work on that.

But what Blake says, about being a young girl, younger (more or less) than Thrud, being caught up in the passion of someone else...someone older, something about that starts to get Thor's hackles up, but not at Blake.

"...Who was this guy?"

[fromshadows]

Thor's not wrong, and it's not the fighting that Blake's ever had a problem with; it's the killing of innocent humans. Humans that had nothing to do with Faunus oppression.

"His name was Adam," she sighs. "Not long after we met, my dad stepped down from leadership, and I stayed with the White Fang after my parents left." She doesn't get into how she'd screamed at her parents and called them cowards, and she doesn't get into how that was the last time she saw them for years. "Adam became everything to me. He was my mentor at first. He taught me so much about philosophy and activism, and how to fight. He looked out for me, made sure I was safe, because I was still too young to join the raids at that time. Around the time that I did become old enough, our relationship turned romantic."

There's still a tiny part of her that feels... not wistful, but perhaps still fond for those days. She'd been young and oblivious, and spellbound by her first love. The lows of the relationship had been so low, but the highs had been so incredibly high.

"And then he started changing," she admits, ears drooping. "At first it was just little things. He always had excuse. He didn't mean to, it was an accident. It was self-defense. He'd come back to camp with blood on his hands and he wouldn't understand why I didn't like that. I justified his actions to myself, but he started killing more and more humans, with no reason whatsoever.

One night, we were freeing some Faunus from a Dust mine. Adam had set the whole place on fire, and it was hard to breathe, and see, but all I cared about was him. I got jumped by some security guard, and Adam put a bullet through his head. I guess he knew I was starting to be unhappy about that sort of thing, because he put on this act, like, calling himself a monster. But I reassured him that I loved him, I wasn't scared of him. And that was when he said it: that nobody would ever love me like he did."

Where her legs are pulled close to her chest, Blake rests her cheek on her knee, watching Thor's profile out of the corner of her eye. "It was maybe six months after that that I decided I couldn't be there anymore, and I ran away. But... that just led to a whole lot more problems."

sleepover

[nothisnose]

[ Eugene examines his fingernails from underneath the horse's head onesie. ]

What about gold? I like gold.

[fromshadows]

"We can do gold," Blake approves, digging around in the little basket of nail polish to find the gold she knows she saw somewhere. "It's a lovely color."

(She might be a bit biased, since it makes her think of Yang.)

When she finds it, she brings it out with a triumphant little ah-hah, and holds it up to Eugene's face, comparing his coloring to it. "Yes, it'd definitely suit you. Okay." She drags a cushion onto her lap, a brightly colored unicorn orb, and pats it. "Put your hands here, palm down."

[nothisnose]

"It's the colour of my girlfriend's hair," he says, putting his hands in her lap as requested. "So I'm fond of it."

Should he really be confessing to being that biased? Ah, well. It's not embarrassing anymore.

[fromshadows]

Blake doesn't bother to hide her amused little smile. So, Eugene is gone for his girlfriend, whoever that is. Blake can relate. She has her own golden-haired girl she's a total dumbass for, though they're not dating yet.

"Is she here in Somnius?" Blake asks, shaking the nail polish and uncapping it, getting started on Eugene's nails.

Gals being Pals at the Sleepover

[goldilocksandloads]

Last month was pretty rough on Yang. On both of them really. So a fun, relaxing sleepover is probably exactly what the doctor would order.

Yang's face still looks a little drawn from the extended lack of sleep and the bruises on her throat and left arm haven't completely faded yet, although thankfully they're all covered fairly well by the ridiculous burger-themed onesie she's been provided with. Hey, it's leagues better than the academy-issued PJs she'd had in Atlas.

Currently, she's sitting on her knees, trying very hard not to twitch or move as Blake gives her a makeover. Her usual make-up, when she wears any at all, has always been kinda low-key. But this is a sleepover and there's nobody she trusts more to give her a "glam up" than Blake.

That said, she just barely stops herself from chuckling as Blake brushes some blush onto her cheeks.

"Sorry. ...Tickles."

[fromshadows]

Yang doesn't wear much makeup, so Blake had been thrilled to be allowed the opportunity to give her some. It's not that she thinks Yang would look better with it -- in fact, she's pretty sure Yang will always be at her most gorgeous without a ton of makeup -- but it's still fun to experiment!

"I know, sorry," she laughs lowly, finishing up with the blush. She'd done some light foundation with a tiny bit of contouring, mostly just to enhance Yang's jaw and cheekbones, and the blush had added the finishing touches.

Somehow, Yang is adorable in that stupid burger onesie. Even with how tired she looks. Even with the bruises. She's been through a hell of a month and she's still willing to come to a sleepover with Blake and indulge her love of makeup. Blake doesn't think she could love her any more than she loves her in the moment.

She sits back, humming thoughtfully as she goes through eyeshadow colors, holding palettes up to compare them to Yang's coloring. "What do you think? Normally the rule for the best complimentary eyeshadow color is to go for the opposite color of your eyes." As Yang has no doubt seen on Blake; her purple eyeshadow is the opposite color across the color wheel from her yellow eyes. "So technically yellow or gold would be the best color to really make your eyes pop."

[goldilocksandloads]

Yang can't quite see the palettes as Blake holds them up to her face, but it's probably funny to watch her glance sideways to try to somehow see for herself how they look. That question makes her giggle though; not at Blake or her suggestion but just at something that occurs to her.

"I don't know...I've kinda got a lot of yellow framing them already."

She gives a wide grin, hand reaching up to playfully tug at a lock of her blonde bangs. Sitting back, she smiles warmly.

"I trust your expertise. Whatever you think looks best."

[fromshadows]

"You're right, and there is such a thing as too much yellow," Blake hums. "Whatever shade I used would just get lost among your bangs. I think we'll go for a classic smoky eye, then. You can never go wrong with that."

She picks out a nice velvety black, and sets it on her knee, dabbing the little brush in it. "Close your eyes for me," she directs.

Without thinking, Blake cups Yang's cheek and leans in, her breath faintly ghosting over Yang's skin as she sweeps the brush over her eyelid, methodical and gentle. When she realizes how close she is, her eyes guiltily dart down to Yang's lips, and her cheeks flush.

"I like your pajamas, by the way," she says, and it comes out a little shy, but playful. "They're cute."