closed 🌠⚡ i will be the one to light up the way

[starshower]

Who: Tifa Lockhart & Eustace.
Status: Closed.
Where: Eltrut.
What: Skull painting, weird gondolas, and maybe event stuff?
Warnings: Awkward adults with awkward feelings.

Comments

[starshower]

[His breath rustles and tickles her hair, and she can only hum a quiet, amused laugh, her eyes glinting.]

Just some wolf-like patterns. I could, though...

[flamekthunder]

Don't—unless you want me to return the favor.

[starshower]

I never said I was gonna.

[She pulls her hand and the brush back to look over her work, and ends up... just gazing up at him instead...]

[flamekthunder]

[He just gives a playful roll of his eyes as he watches her step back and...

...Is...staring.

...]

What...does it look weird?

[starshower]

Huh?

[She snaps out of whatever... reverie she had been thrown into in that moment, and glances away with an awkward laugh.]

N-no. Actually, it's the opposite...

[flamekthunder]

[...Hm?

Just a slight arch of the brow before he tries to look around.]

Might as well find a mirror.

[starshower]

Eustace—

[She doesn't know why she suddenly says his name when he looks around. It just comes tumbling out of her without a thought, as if she's trying to pull his attention back to her, to keep them where they are. Only to pull back from him herself.]

No mirrors up here, unfortunately. You'll just have to trust me when I say that it looks...good...

[Not that that's what she was looking at when she was caught staring.]

[flamekthunder]

[Just a slight arch of the brow when he hears her call him.]

...Could use a glass. But all right, I'll trust you for now.

[And he'll stare down at her for a moment...

...

Before smirking a bit and then moving to walk away.]

[starshower]

Wait—

[She watches him with a look of slightly amused incredulity.]

Where are you going? Did I say I was finished?

[flamekthunder]

You mean you're not?

[Just a high raise of his brows.]

What else could you need to do?

[starshower]

[She bursts into some giggles.]

I was kidding... go sit down.

[She motions to the table where their paint and whiskey awaits while she goes to grab their skulls they left behind on the counter.]

My paint's drying out anyway.

[flamekthunder]

[...Uh huh. He'll eye her a little warily before heading back to the table.

It's a good thing he used the ring to get here at least. Only Valo will be surprised by whatever she did to his face—]

So I should work on a rabbit next, huh. Missing the ears.

[starshower]

Hmmm...

[She follows after him back to the table, grinning with some pride at her work and when Valo starea at them both in utter confusion. She gives him a wave, and he returns his greeting with a boof at them.]

We'll need to find something that could make the ears... Wonder if you could fold some napkins...

[flamekthunder]

Probably, but would need something to secure them so they don't flop around too much. Some cardboard or stiff paper...

[After giving Valo a scratch on the ears, he takes the skull and wonders how to make it rabbit like.]

[starshower]

[Her eyes light up.]

Well, I've got plenty of cardboard. We could just use that...! Kinda mad I didn't think of it.

Would some old boxes do the trick?

[flamekthunder]

That should do.

[starshower]

[She doesn't say anything more and instead she just runs back to the bar, moving behind it. There's some rustling and shuffling that has Valo lifting his head in concern, and when she stands again, she has a small, folded up box in her hands and a pair of scissors that she brings over and sets down on the table in front of them.]

This was all I could find, but this should be okay. Enough for me to make some wolf ears out of it for mine, too.

[Taking a seat next to him, she pauses to look at him again, snickering at the patterns on his face.]

You first. I gotta finish my skull after you distracted me.

[flamekthunder]

[As if she should laugh, with her whiskers and nose twitching about. And seeing her run off... Yeah, she really did look like a little rabbit bouncing away.]

Me? You started it.

[And he'll begin working on the skull.]

[starshower]

True, I did.

[She motions to his face, canting her head to get a better view of him.]

But it turned out pretty good in the end.

[She does reach up to swipe a stray spot of paint from his face.]

[flamekthunder]

[Just a slight furrow of his brow but nothing more.]

You realize everyone on your ship is going to see it.

[starshower]

And? They'll all be sad they missed out on the fun.

[She leans a little closer.]

Or are you worried they'll see you?

[flamekthunder]

...Doesn't matter to me.

[Maybe a little. He doesn't care too much about his image, but he cares some.]

[starshower]

We'll see.

[She just gives a small exhale of what sounds like a defeated laugh before she goes back to her skull.]

... Anyway. Let's finish these up. We've got a lot more to do after these ones if we wanna decorate the bar with them.

[flamekthunder]

[A low hum as he continues painting, actually focusing a little more on this skull than the previous ones where he just did random things to it. Obviously it will also have some patterns or some kind of decor around it, but with a bunny motif... Paw prints? Or carrots... Maybe he should start with the whiskers? Would a skull have whiskers???

Eventually he'll start, but he will definitely be holding up that skull and scrutinizing it so hard to the point it almost looks like he's glaring at it—or, given the paint job, like a wolf ready to tear it apart.]

[starshower]

[While he does that, Tifa gets to work on her own wolf one, painting in with colours of grays, whites, golds, and yellows, mixed in with some blues. Every now and then, she glances up at him, watching him with a smile that unknowingly grows every time she sees him scrutinizing or studying his work. It's endearing and almost frustratingly cute, and she wants to lean over to peek at what he's painted so far, but she'll wait until they're finished.

Next are the ears, which she cuts out for both of them from the smaller pieces of the cardboard. A pair of wolf ears for her and a rabbit-shaped cutouts for him. These, she paints white to match his hair with little flecks of gray for "depth", as she'll call it.

And once they are both finished...]

Are we ready for the big reveal?

[As if they haven't been sitting beside each other the whole time, but she tries (and fails) to hide her own behind her hands.]