2018-12-12 - TIMELINE 1: White Night! The Covenant of Style!

White Night: The Covenant of Style
Summary: Girls do each other's hair at Madoka's sleepover. Mami comes up with a deceptively small idea.
Who: Madoka Kaname, Usagi Tsukino, Homura Akemi, Nori Ankou, Mami Tomoe
Where: Kaname Household
OOC - IC Date: 12/12/2018 - 03-14-2014

<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

It's partway through the night, and the lighter eaters have had their fill of hot pot and chocolate while snacks remain strewn around for those who've yet to stop. Strewn around where?

Strewn around everywhere.

As are: sleeping bags, pillows, shoujo manga, and, more recently, Hair Care Products. Which, with a slightly mischevious expression between herself and Mami, as though this might have been plotted in advance, Madoka has produced from the sanctum sanctorum of the bathroom.

Anyone not interested in doing each other's hair has summarily exited the living room. Or at least they're on the fringes, because as of now the center of the living room is wholly occupied by a gigantic blanket fort. With flashlights suspended above, the light within is blue and green and gold at turns.

Inside, Madoka is curled up in her pajamas, legs crossed, laying out a bunch of implements of hair construction around her like a nurse preparing a surgeon's operating table.

She looks at the others with a wide smile.

"Let's make a circle?"

<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.

Usagi Tsukino is sporting a pair of pink pajamas with darker pink trim, and fuzzy pink slippers. A slumber party veteran, she's been a social butterfly throughout the night, seeming everywhere and doing everything all at once - inserting herself into the joy of everyone around her like a moth drawn to it, except that she was determined to make the joy even brighter.

However there is one peculiar addendum to her outfit. One familiar to anyone who has ever had their hair styled at the salon. A towel, wrapped around her head like an impromptu turban, imprisoning her hair within it.

Up until now it has been entirely unremarked upon by the person wearing it until they were in the middle of this most comfy of pillow forts. Before there was a place for secrets. Now however, there are none between her and these girls, and it is time.

Short - long - wavy, she could have her hair in any way on demand, then poof, have it back without having to spend months or years waiting for it to be back the way it came.

Right now though, Usagi Tsukino, kneels down on one end of the circle, by Madoka. "This is always my favorite part of a slumber party." She confides, having enjoyed this idea of playing with the hair of her friends for ages as a child, and changing her own with the Disguise Pen ever since she became Sailor Moon.

Then with a hand, takes one end of the towel and strips it from her hair without any shame.

Like thread unwinding from a spool, her hair is not in blonde twintails right now. It simply falls down, freely. Her hair is past her hips under ordinary circumstances. Now however it is more akin to call it Rapunzel-like in quality and length, as it folds upon itself again and again behind her in something that seems straight out of a fairy tale.

Placing her hands together as if praying, she explains, "Ever since that day when I found out I was the Princess it just grows and grows. I've had to trim it every night just to keep up..." Yet she hadn't last night, just in anticipation for this - tonight between all of them.

She then winks, with a smile that seems like it could parcel out joy like White Day candy, "None of you mind keeping it a secret between us girls - ne?"

<Pose Tracker> Homura Akemi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Hair care products and mischief. Her wallflower's instinct signals danger, danger! Homura Akemi overrides the alarms with an anxious little squirm, because to escape the inevitability of a long-haired girl's fate at a sleepover would be to escape Madoka, too. Truth be told, she likes all the girls submerged in this under-blanket realm, a lot. They're all so cool, so... magical.

Still, she clutches a volume of manga tight as she scoots over to help make a circle. "Okay, Kaname-san!" It's her little shield and something to do with her hands that isn't twisting up the hem of her purple-striped nightgown. Of course she tries to end up next to the girl with the pink hair.

Homura lifts her head from its duck to peek around the forming circle. Everyone here is so pretty, and their hair always is too, from the elegance of Mami and Nori to the loveliness of Usagi and Madoka. The transfer student has her long black hair in its usual configuration: parted into braids thick and glossy and anchored with purple bows, with fine bangs headband-tamed.

"Oh, wow...!"

She'd wondered why Usagi had her hair up in a turban, but of course lacked the courage to voice her curiosity. Now the reason revealed reflects in Homura's astonished gaze.

"That's so... your hair is so long! It's magic..." And then she claps her hands over her mouth and colors a bit. Of course it's magic, they're all magic. This brings the manga and the braid up to her face too, so she ends up peering over the spine of a book and through a curled fluff of black hair. She bobs a series of nods. "I promise, Tsukino-san!"

It's sure that Homura will keep her secret, just as it's sure that she will keep calling them all by their surnames. They're her heroes! She's so lucky to be here.

<Pose Tracker> Nori Ankou [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Nori Ankou has gotten her fill of the warm home cooking of Mama Kaname, and is only nibbling on the other sweets, for now. But what is really important is the siren (sic) call of something new, something strange, something beautiful.

A blanket fort.

Nori is in silk pajamas in an understated shade of sea green. Her hair has lost its ringletting over the course of the journey to Hokkaido, rendering it thick and glossy but essentially straight (sic).

"I will tell nobody, I swear," she answers Usagi, quietly, with another of the faintly tentative smiles she has had. La Sirene du Nord has not appeared since Hokkaido. Perhaps she is done with it, or perhaps there was enough sorrow to satisfy whatever-she-was-doing there, in those northern snows.

"But it doesn't bother you or anything, to have it grow that much? I would think you'd get a little ill," Nori continues as she sweeps her own hair outwards, wiggling into position to join the circle. Perhaps she hesitates some, but she is quiet about it.

"... this is really beautiful, Madoka. Do you build something like this place often? I kind of want to do my room up in this style, now..."

<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Mami Tomoe is of course also here. ...And there with Madoka. Mami's array of haricare implements is considerable, perhaps even intimidating to the uninitiated. Straightener, crimpler, curling iron, dryer, brushes, clips--all well cared-for, shiny, elegant.

Mami herself is in understated but lovely pajamas, something good for sitting around at a sleepover in. ...She may have been eating snacks as well, of course. Mami's pajamas are fancy, mature, but cheerful; the little flower pattern is actually a subtle set of them embroidered in, just a little darker than the rest of the material.

Her hair is golden, perfect, and down for once, unstyled indicating it's rather longer than is entirely obvious in her drills. Somehow even unstyled there's a glow to it.

But when she joins the circle, she looks with some obvious joy at Usagi's incredibly long hair. "Yes," she says to Madoka, in conspiratorial tones, sitting down with the others--by Usagi this time.

"That's a very good problem to have," Mami says to Usagi with a small laugh. "You could try out all sorts of styles without having to commit!"

A beat, as she looks to Homura. "She smiles, widely. "Now you're in on the secret. You're part of the covenant of style..."

Of course Mami made a name for it.

"I suspect it's heavy," Mami offers to Nori. "...Maybe that's why our Usagi-chan sleeps so much--carrying her long hair tires her out?"

She is unabashedly teasing.

<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Madoka's lack of surprise at Usagi's display is an indicator that she's known about this secret for some time. In fact, she sports a faintly troubled expression for a moment before she papers it over.

---

Madoka strokes Usagi soothingly, hand sliding behind her head, the next morning at Hokkaido.

"I'm sorry, Usagi-chan. It's just not right or fair... but I'll do my best to help you enjoy it, okay?"

---

She obligingly reaches out to settle Homura in front of her, eternally willing to do her classmate's hair whether they're at a sleepover OR NOT. Still, there's a lot more time than usual to really do a good job.

She wields a comb with extraordinary gentleness as she begins the slow and patient process of banishing the tiny tangles of the day. It's like having fairies in your hair; the occasional little feeling of being lightly brushed by a wing, but little else. Slow, methodical, and a little bit reverential. That is how she treats Homura's hair.

"Tatsuya-chan likes blanket forts," she explains to Nori comfortably. "Sometimes we make blanket mazes, so he can try to find his way through them. Papa says it's good developmental theory?"

Settling herself more comfortably, she continues to patiently detangle Homura.

"The covenant of style," she repeats, dreamily. "Everyone has nicer hair than me... but if anyone can make mine lovely, I'm sure it's all of you."

<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.

"I know right?" Usagi titters a little at Homura, before Nori asks if it bothers her, Usagi actually considers it seriously, a finger to her chin, and tilting her head to the side in thought, "Hmm. Maybe at first... I was a mess when..." Usagi gives Madoka this knowing smile. "... Madoka-chan found me the morning after..." It was her support that had allowed her to come to terms with it.

In her eyes, the inconvenience was such a small price to pay to keep Madoka Kaname in their lives.

"...it felt like everything was changing so fast. But now it feels a little like... growing up?"

Perhaps that's how she considers all of this. Just like her legs growing longer, or graduating from training bras to actual ones. Being the Moon Princess to her simply added a different aspect to maturing as a girl.

"Right?" Usagi says enthusiastically at Mami, "It's like the first time I used the disguise pen to turn me into a beautiful punk musician - remember that?"

https://tinyurl DOT com/ycgc3lbg

Noone is like to forget that.

"Ehhh!? You think so Mami-san?" Usagi Tsukino considers it, she'd had her hair long for some time - perhaps that was the reason behind... "Wait- you're just..." Usagi hangs her head in melodrama, "... what a day to be teased by Mami-san..." And yet, far from sad, her lips quirk in a smile after. Because it made her feel a little closer to her, that Mami was participating here tonight, as one of them, as one of their friends at this slumber party."

However then eagerly, Usagi Tsukino shifts her knees in their circle to position herself behind Madoka, and uses a hand to slowly shift the pile of hair to her new position behind her, "... your baby brother is so cute right now..." Then with a note of wryness she warns, "... cherish these times before he grows a little older..." She notes, as if thinking of Shingo when he came home from the hospital versus... how he is now.

With delicate care given like this were a sacred ritual, Usagi undoes one of Madoka's ribbons, then the other, wielding a hair brush instead. She's long since known that brushing another girl's hair carries a certain intimacy to it. And so she does so with delicate strokes. Using her hand to steady a section before she draws the brush over it. "Don't sell your hair short Madoka-chan."

Usagi leans over, with an apologetic wink from her periphery at the 'short' statement, the two are same height sisters, so she'd never maliciously say that about her height - hair though... "I'm sure I'll be able to work my own sort of magic on it..." She vows.

Before turning her head fractionally to look behind her, "Getting Mami-san to give my hair her mature sense of style..." Usagi makes this little noise that sounds like a smothered squeal, "I feel so 'luck~y'." She says that word in English, one of the few English words she can say on command.

<Pose Tracker> Homura Akemi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

"Covenant of style." Homura gives the phrase her usual earnest-to-serious consideration, echoing the same thing Madoka does. "Tomoe-san knows so much..." Whether she wields lovely gleaming muskets or lovely gleaming curling irons, no one could ever beat the illustrious Mami Tomoe, she thinks.

It shows on her face too, clear as day -- right up until the pink fairies of friendly affection unravel Homura's braids and her thoughts all at once. From her vantage point Madoka only gets to experience the braids portion of that, with ropes of black unfurling easily enough only to slip into inky looping tangles. All that hair, much like the girl it's attached to, falls all over itself to say hello to Madoka and ends up bit of a mess for it.

Others get to see the usual poleax drop across her face, and then the way Homura holds oh so carefully still, not wanting to make things difficult or do anything else for fear the other girl might realize she's too much trouble. "Your hair is so pretty, Kaname-san," comes the meek-voiced objection. So friendly-soft, just like Madoka herself, she thinks. The nicest hair here, she thinks.

The circle is complete, and Homura finds herself in charge of...

• gulp*

...the lustrous locks of one Nori Ankou, the girl who is so beautiful she could be a model, Homura's sure.

"Are... um, Ankou-san..." Homura feels entirely inadequate to the task. She feels inadequate to most, to be fair. But she doesn't want to disappoint anyone... Oh no, oh no, what can she do? She doesn't finish asking Nori if she's sure she wants Homura doing this, just... swallows again and fumbles for a comb. The similarities between their hair, thick and straight and black, reassures her somewhat. Maybe it'll be like combing her own hair. She could do a braid... she knows how to braid.

With fingers all fluttery-anxious she reaches out, ready to apologize at a moment's notice, for Nori's lovely locks. Homura plucks up the tiniest little section, a long strand from the back of the other girl's head, and with all gingerness... she combs. Once. Then -- if no one speaks up to confirm her fears of what a bad job she must be doing... twice! "Is... is this alright, Ankou-san? Do... do you like braids?"

<Pose Tracker> Nori Ankou [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

"Mm," Nori says to Mami as she advanced a theory of the Usagisleep. Her eyes turn towards Usagi then, smiling faintly, before she looks back at Madoka and says, "He sounds like a very talented child if he is doing mazes... he's very cute, though. Do you ever..."

She trails off then, laughing, in favor of another question being raised. "Your hair is lovely! It would be a little more flexible if it were longer but the only thing to do with that is to wait." Or become a Princess, but even that involves waiting, just not a lot of it!

Looking forwards, as she settles into the great circle of hair, she reaches up to grasp a lock of Mami's hair and gently feel it. "Hmm-m - it's very full bodied... You must have a little bit of a curl to it naturally? I had to use curlers to keep that whole style up. Hm, hm."

She gathers up another handful and reaches for a hairbrush. This, it seems, is mere preparation. Or perhaps it's pampering. "I wish it would go more slowly," Nori says to Usagi. "I think I could get used to, a Covenant of Style."

Brushy brushy. She leans her hair backwards as Homura reaches out and says, lightly, "It's wonderful, Homura, you have a delicate touch - ooh. I've never worn braids."

She leans her head baaaaaaaaack further to look at Homura upside-down. "But I want to." Then back forwards, to give Homura room to work!

<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Does it bother Usagi? Mami remembers when she learned; she was... surprised, certainly. "Growing up--Yes, I think. ...You know how I feel, of course--but I think that's a very mature way to look at it. Accepting your past is part of making your future. Besides, whatever changes... I don't think you could stop being you if you wanted to."

As for the disguise, though, "Ah, I should tell you I've been tempted to try to borrow that," Mami says with a little giggle. "But I remember! It was certainly a unique look."

But--Yes. Yes, she was teasing. Mami nods, sagely, to Nori. And to Usagi, "It'll have to be an ongoing mystery."

Mami chimes in of Tatsuya, "He is!" ...Mami's opinion of how adorable Madoka's little brother is is plain--the sting of seeing other families has abated, eventually. At least most of the way.

"Ah, Madoka-chan, you know I wouldn't work with a girl with terrible hair. You don't have to be so modest!"

"Homura-chan does very well with braids--I was impressed with them when I saw them, lovely and even."

A beat, "I feel like I'm the lucky one, Usagi-chan--there's so much of it, and it's such a lovely color!" Mami pulls a comb, beginning to gently work through Usagi's hair to start, almost reverently. No, not almost--

Mami Tomoe would treat Usagi's hair like that of a princess's even if it weren't literally true.

"Hmm, you think so?" Mami asks about the name she offered. "You know..."

Mami's hair, meanwhile, is indeed soft, extremely well taken-care of. And Mami answers, "A little of one," she says. "But of course curls like I usually wear take a little more planning than leaving it to nature."

<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

"H-hey," Madoka moans, "It isn't that short!"

And indeed this is the case. Out of its twintails it's a fluffy mane that dips a little beneath her shoulders. It is only unreasonably plain hair in this company. It's fairly easy to imagine why she doesn't grow it further out, though; compared to most of the others, it's very thin, fine stuff. There just isn't that much of it. It might look awfully scraggly if it were long.

She is soothed by the brushing, though, and for a moment her hands pause in Homura's hair, so her own can go a little bit half-lidded. After that, though, she regains her composure enough to be both relaxed and productive, and work on her friend's hair resumes.

She seems to be splitting it into two pieces. That isn't very different from her usual look... does Madoka just lack imagination??

She hums to herself a little -- Credens Justitiam, as usual -- then pauses, heavy locks pooling in either palm, to consider.

"You know, Homura-chan, I think your hair is my favorite," she decides. "It's like... the night sky reflected on Tokyo Bay drawn in calligrapher's ink. Beautiful and dark, but it contains so much subtlety..."

<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.

Usagi looks forward in the circle towards Homura and says, "Mmm-mmm - isn't it just?" At the declaration of how pretty Madoka's hair is. However Mami then calls her mature, and Usagi finds herself straightening, feeling like she's so much more mature already just because Mami has called her attitude that way. "To be praised by Mami-san... ah... I wish I could record it for Rei-chan to hear..."

Usagi does titter a little at Madoka's little moan, and Usagi keeps brushing through her hair, already though she's gotten rid of the tangles with utmost care, and is starting to gather the hair up in a way not unlike Madoka's usual style, except higher up on her hair, beginning to delicately work the hair up and tuck it under itself as if she were braiding it...

Mami's comb works through her hair, and Usagi finds herself smiling a little more with each stroke, humming a happy little melody that sounds like jpop. Secretly it's an original song on a friend's youtube channel, but as she goes it changes into credens justitiam too. "Have whatever fun with it you want Mami-san~ it's what I grew it out for!"

While Usagi Tsukino doesn't feel she needs a safety net with someone like Mami Tomoe... it's true that she has one.

No matter what anyone does to her hair, it'll grow back, grow out, she can change it on a whim. She wouldn't fear the touch of even the most uncertain or nervous or even malicious hands right now, because she does not need to be afraid. It'll grow back.

"Covenant of Style..." Usagi repeats almost dreamily, as Mami dwells on it, "You have such a way with coming up with names Mami-san... I should have you consider the names for some of my attacks..."

As Madoka compliments Homura's hair, "... so poetic!" She remarks at Madoka before glancing over her shoulder, "...your dark hair really does have such a cool quality to it Homura-chan!"

Right now Homura with her hair as it is reminds her of Rei Hino, which gives her a leg up - given that Usagi's reaction to first seeing her was following that Pretty Lady around all day, "... like a real traditional Japanese beauty..."

<Pose Tracker> Homura Akemi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Homura listens, rapt, to the girls and their chatter. It warms her to be in this blanket-bound bubble with them all, to hear them talk and laugh with the ease of friendship. Hair care tips, memories shared... She's like a hermit come down from the mountain, huddled up to a family campfire.

Nori reaps a startle from Homura when she leans waaaayyyy back to look her in the upside-down eyes, which hopefully doesn't disturb what Madoka's doing too badly. But that, that is the opposite of criticism. She blinks a few times and then nods, puppy-eager, which almost certainly disturbs what Madoka's doing. "It'd be my honor, Ankou-san!"

And it is! This might also be one of the few things in the world Homura feels solidly adequate at, since she does her own braids every morning and has for years. Then... then Tomoe-san compliments her and Homura starts to glow. Sure, it's more of self-conscious salmon than anything, but still! With her senpai's golden approval helping her achieve a brief facsimile of confidence, she sets to a more thorough -- though still ginger and feather-light -- combing job. "Your hair hardly needs it," she says, "so smooth..."

She is really tempted to look behind her, to see Madoka's hair in whatever state Usagi's gotten it to, but she doesn't want to (further) disrupt that lovely brushing. Her mane divides in two easily; indeed it might be more difficult to convince it to stay as one with the years of training it's got. The glow that Mami lit amps up to incandescent levels when Madoka says she thinks Homura's hair is her favorite.

Anyone watching her face could see that Homura is committing every word to memory.

Nori, for her part, will experience a sudden half of the presses -- or rather, the plaiting. It takes her hairdresser several moments to resume her work. Homura whispers, "Th-thank you Kaname-san," and feels singularly UNsubtle as she stumbles through it. There is a small part of Homura that has always drawn some pride in her hair, when she could take none in anything else: long and thick, a thing the nurses and nuns around her would comment on, even, sometimes.

"You're so kind, Tsukino-san..." It's just... different, to hear it put that way, by these girls. They mean so much more to her. "Thank you for, for having me." She redoubles her work on the fine black silk in her hands, wanting to weave her very best and most perfect braid for Nori.

<Pose Tracker> Nori Ankou [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Nori finishes giving Mami's hair what must be a hundred strokes of the hairbrush and sets it aside, before trying to figure out where to go from here. She contemplates, she fluffs some of the hair around, she even brings up a bit to tickle at the back of Mami's neck while being completely straitlaced.

She then gathers it up with both hands, forming a ponytail sort of shape, which she adjusts with subtle pulsations as she tests. The high ponytail gets twisted round into something nearer to a bun, telling Mami as she does, "Tell me if I'm going too tight..."

"It does," Nori says, glancing over her shoulder at the topic of Homura's hair. "Have you noticed how nobody's hair is really quite exactly the same? I know I have a little bit of a red tint in mine, just a tiny little thing. At least my mother said so. But yours is like the sky at midnight on a new moon."

<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Mami obviously recognizes the tune from Madoka, and as it has many times before, it brings a little smile to her face as she considers. ...But then she finds herself answering, "Isn't it? It's such a lovely, deep black. I feel like you could do nearly anything with it--have you ever considered wearing it long?"

But she answers Usagi, "Ah, but that would be telling, wouldn't it?" She lets off the light teasing, listens to the music, and makes sure to get everything fine, and even--truthfully she could spend a whole night just coming out Usagi's hair, with the sheer volume of it. And for styling...

"I think I'll start with something I could see you in--we can always experiment with more radical shifts later."

But names... Mami beams under the compliment. "I do try," she answers, and then hmms. "Don't most of your attacks have names that come to you intuitively? I'd hate to argue with your magic itself. I suppose I could try for some that don't have names..."

Homura just--talking, styling, being part of this, Mami smiles for another reason. Seeing her grow a little over time is a wonderful gift of its own.

"And thank you," Mami tells Homura. "I'm very happy that you've come with us. My life wouldn't be the same without you in it." She can't look, with her hair being worked, "And it would be less bright for it."

Mami operates smoothly underneath the care Nori gives her, of course. But she does feel the tickle, and can't help but giggle lightly. "Ah--that's not fair," she half-complains, tilting her eyes down. "Ah, but I'll tell you if you do."

Nobody's is quite the same... "Yes," Mami agrees, that's true. As she talks, though, she's been working; when she sets down the comb, she pulls Usagi's hair back, gently, and begins to shape lengths of it, weaving a little bit. "...Something adorable suits you, I think."

<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

"Ooooo, you do," Madoka murmurs of Nori's hair, turning her head -- slowly, so as not to jerk Usagi's comb -- to look at the red tint in question. Then she returns to her foreward-mounted position, and to the endless wonders of Homura's.

She's starting to gather and wrap, pausing occasionally, patiently, and without comment, when Homura feels the need to wriggle. One bun is coming into shape -- then it's tied into place with the first of Homura's purple ribbons, in a fine bow. A Madoka-style bow.

Then a second one.

In short order, Homura has been given a ribbon-adorned version of Usagi's iconic hairstyle; she is unmistakably Sailor Moon.

She finishes the second bun with a fond pat.

"Usagi-chan is always adorable," she points out to Mami. "And Homura-chan is too. But you know, I really think odango suit you!"

There's a hand mirror in reach, and she passes it forward and relinquishes it to her partner.

<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.

"Some of them!" Usagi declares on her attacks, not pushing the point on Mami spoiling her intent for her hair. "Others I kind of... make up as I go..."

Sailor Body Attack must be one of them...

"-or they were inspired a little by Sailor V..."

Sailor V Kick!

Sailor Venus Kick!

Sailor Moon Kick!

"-uh - don't tell her that though. She already knows she's my idol - she'll get an even bigger head..."

Something adorable suits her? Usagi giggles a little, "You know me so well..." Usagi declares without any complaint. In a way it's nice to know 'adorable' suits her even when she has a mature attitude. How part of growing up doesn't mean she needs to shed that.

Yet at the same time... to be a more elegant lady too...

Usagi Tsukino continues in her work, no ribbons or needed for the hair, at least as she spools up Madoka's vibrant pink hair in her hands. Mysterious in her works. It's only after she has it like she wants it, that she places a singular bright blue checkered pastel bow, giving it an assymetrical sense within Usagi Tsukino's own style.

She's almost finished, when she hears that 'odango' suits Homura, and Usagi tries not to move her head too much from Mami's hands, but looks, "Whoa! You're so good at it Madoka-chan~ I'm definitely going to have you do my hair sometime..." Usagi could odango in her sleep, but there's something marvelous about the idea of a best friend doing up your hair style.

"Speaking of how it suits the two of us though-" Usagi says as she fluffs the side of Madoka's hair in one final adjustment. "-perfect!"

Reaching aside, she pops open a compact mirror, holding it up from the side for Madoka to look. "Make it the three of us." She declares happily.

Usagi Tsukino has placed up Madoka's hair into slightly taller and thinner buns than the traditional oxhorn or odango style. Such that they look just a little like rabbit ears. The remainder of her hair parted out of the bottom of each bun to curl out just a small amount to each side.

"Because it shouldn't take long hair to work these buns."

<Pose Tracker> Homura Akemi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

"I think... I do see it," she says, squinting down at the forming braid in her right hand. Is that a crimson shimmer? "I wonder what causes all the little differences..." Amazing that Nori sees these things, she thinks. "You um... you must have a very good eye for color, Ankou-san."

Odango! Homura headtilts reactively and the back of her head feels so clean and light with the hair all gathered up high -- her hair shines and twirls as she cranes her neck. A curious sensation. She finally dares turn round all the way to see what's become of Madoka. "Ohhh!" The cuteness hits her hard. It takes an offered mirror to break the spell.

Which Homura then blinks down into. "I... I look like..." Just like Sailor Moon... The dark-haired version gives the bright a shy look, all big violet eyes and spectacles beneath the inky odango.

Mami's words then have her turning red right down to the neck of her nightgown. She can't quite look at the older girl, but stares at the other girl's hands instead as they work through Usagi's long hair. All she can do is murmur another thanks, this time higher pitched and halting, because she doesn't understand why... but she wouldn't dream of questioning her senpai.

It's just so much for Homura, an overwhelming amount of gentle encouragement and friendship, and when she turns back to the lovely black (with a touch of crimson!) hair of Nori's, she fingers her fingers are all shaky. "Um... sorry... I ah, let me..." A deep breath! A squigglemouth of concentration! Nori deserves the very best she can do, however good that ends up being.

And really... it ends up being pretty nice. Two neat plaits shine from Nori's head when Homura's done, shorter versions of her own twin braids, tied with her own purple bows because that's what she has to hand. "I hope that's not too tight!"