#arkadia posting

Belle in: An Average Day

The great underground city… it used to be a paradise for beasts, a land of no laws.

But after the Revolution the place had become much more civilized, following the government of the silver fox, who “introduced” the monetary system to the beasts.

This pushed many beasts to pursue less… relaxed goals, many descended to the mines to work for a living -and a little more- others sought less… brute occupations.

The light of the lamps filtered trough the window, reflecting on a golden mirror that sat calmly on the bureau.

From the light a pure white figure emerged, gracefully forming in front of the mirror, born from the reflected light in the room.

The figure slowly took detail, an slender feminine body with lustrous pale-white skin, a silky grey hair formed on it’s head, a finely tailored suit sew itself around the body, gracefully forming each one of it’s folds and seams, of a jet-black color with thoroughly made grey details on the end of the sleeves, and a similarly colored pair of pants, an outfit reminiscent of a successful bureaucrat.

You could mistake this shape as a normal human, a human with perfect manners, strong determination and successful career… of course, they are almost all of that, but this person is no human, proven on it’s eyes, that loose all and any type of detail, no more than a reflective, smooth surface showed on it’s eye sockets.

This figure, who existed under the name of “Belle”, is a mirror beast, getting ready for yet another “day” of working in the beautiful city that is this underground conglomerate- of course, beauty is subjective.

“C’mon!” She tugged again at the gate, it was getting rustier and rustier with every week “Arg! -snap- There we go”

The old rusty gate went up, revealing what was a beautifully decorated… hair salon! How else could a “Perfectly” functioning mirror thrive in a society, located in the comercial street -the high-class, wealthy one- of the city, was the “Morphean Dream” a hair salon attended by the most wealthy families of beasts in the city, and some of the rest citizens.

Behind the crystal front, with the logo of the salon shown in one of the windows, the salon was decorated with radiant, white walls with black stripes at the bottom of them, a black-n’-white checkered floor, and an eye-catching monochromatic chandelier illuminating all.

From the entrance, at the left wall you could see various “base hairstyles” images stuck to it, with two black couches and a small table with lots of cheap magazines sitting on the floor. At the right wall, a half-wall, giant mirror with golden edges rested, at the foot of it the white-colored bureaus with various hair-dressing items, in front of each one was a rotating chair of a familiar black color. At the back wall, a door to the backroom stood on the left, while a hair-wash station sat at the right corner.

“Okay, time to get things started” Bell walked to the back and turned on the lights.

As usual, things worked slow in the salon, there were three chairs but always only two or three people in the building, Belle being one of them, for more grand and known that her hair salon was, there were only just so many beasts with the cash to afford… or the willingness to do it, many just cut their hair themselves or outright didn’t do it, those where Belle’s less favorite.

The bell on top of the door sounded to life as -finally- a client entered the salon, a young-looking girl walked with a collected smile, beautiful, long loose-curly style burgundy hair graced the air as she walked, her pale skin glowed under the radiant light of the chandelier her crimson eyes spotted Belle instantly.

“Good evening… Is it open yet?” She asked, stopping in her track as soon as she noticed she entered without asking.

“Of course sweetheart” Belle responded “Thank Kad you are not a pure-blood, you would be dust already otherwise”

“Oh don’t mention it! I’ve been working on remembering” The young mistress chuckled.

“So, what will it be today sweetie?” Belle asked, getting ready a chair for the girl.

“I was thinking… maybe I could try another style this time” The girl said sitting on the second chair, the mirror in front reflecting nothing of her.

“Another style? Anything in mind?” Belle tied the barber cape around the her neck.

“I was thinking maybe something… short, something like… something like…” She tried to put her thoughts on word, but simply couldn’t.

“Let me help” Belle said as she lowered herself to her head level behind the chair, the reflection of the mirror, which initially showed Belle alone started to morph, the grey hair in the reflection took a more burgundy coloration and grew, from the short, straight hair to a long, loose curl style, part of it took a pastel red dye, just in the front, combed to the side of her face, face that gained a more skin-like tone, almost pale as a paper. “So, how short did you want?”

“Hmm… let me see chin level” The girl said, showing no reaction to the miraculous transformation that happened in the mirror, why should she? This was the reason she preferred the salon over her own home.

The figure on the mirror, which mimicked perfectly her head, changed once again, the hair decreased in length, stopping at exactly chin level.

“Okay…” The girl thought about it “A bit longer… with a finger wave around, the dyed strand to the contrary direction”

The reflection changed once again, the loose curls relaxed and took a continuous wavy form around her head, the pastel red dyed strand of hair did similarly, but waved to the right “how’s that?”

“Hmm… yes, I’ll do that this time!”

“Very well” The reflection lost itself as Belle stood up, she grabbed a water spray bottle, a pair of golden scissors and began the process.

The seconds became minutes as Belle did her job thoroughly, so focused on making the beautiful hair in front of her look as her client wished, aesthetics were her camp, to do some eye-candy, to work to please her clients, after all hair is one of the windows of true self… or so she thought.

Setting a Hair salon in the underground city was a hassle, to get her name be known even more, she had started as a security guard for one of the most wealthy families in the city! Using her mirrors as a way to keep watch around, but after some years she found herself more and more uninterested in the job, the routine was much too lonely for her, and much more violent.

So one particularly tragic night, she left, she didn’t owe that family anything, if something, THEY owe her. She started to set the hair salon, it was even more lonely and static at first, until her first client entered, why, if it wasn’t no one else than the young lady of the mansion she worked at!

“So, how is the master doing?” Belle asked, trying to start a small conversation, she knew the girl wasn’t to prone to initiate a conversation, but was very into following them.

“Father? That old man is doing his own act back at home, staring at the city creepily from the balcony” The girl chuckled.

“Oh… I didn’t know he took on more… eccentric hobbies” Belle sprayed the hair once more to finish cutting.

“Hah! As if! He says he’s getting too old for many things, the other day we have a break-in, a suspiciously skilled human”

“Really?” Belle was genuinely surprised, her replacement was very good at his job, she knew that “Is everyone okay? Was it a hunter?”

“Of course we are, there’s few things that can overpower us after all!” The girl laughed, carefully to not move much “it wasn’t a burglar tho, just a misdirected girl searching for a big evil”

“How rude! Did she went to you because-“

“No no! It was actually a ratter serious matter for the overground, humans were disappearing here and there, honestly, something so powerful to do that is worrying”

“I see”

“Anyways, dad stood in front of her, had a violent encounter, he didn’t suffer significant damage, but still… he is not the same count as he was 200 years ago…”

Belle fell slightly sad about it, she knew how long that man has lived, so many years do take a hand on you, immortality or not.

The session continued rather silently, with Belle doing her job, the girl seemed in a meditative state, good for the work, but Belle still felt a bit worried, 67 years had passed in which she saw this girl on her day-to-day, such a young lady she was, and yet so much had she lived trough…

“Well, it is done darling” Belle put done her implements, the image on the mirror quickly changed, taking once again the traits of the girl, her pale skin, sharp, glistening fangs as she smiled, her hair now sporting a beautifully burgundy color in a vintage finger wave style, the dyed hair in red pastel did the same, but to the right instead of left.

“Oh Belle… have I told you how magic your work is…?” The girl said, looking at her hair with longing and appreciating eyes.

“Enough for me to know it’s true”

“Oh my… I simply can’t thank you enough!” The girl said as she caressed her new style, it was nice to try new things, even more when you have lived 200-something years. She quickly collected herself “How much will it be?”

“59 Saints sweetie, it was a simple work” To Belle it hurt to charge her, considering she helped her to get a clientele, but she had never accepted any type of offer! -“Your work always deserves full payment, you charge too low too!”- it’s what she always said… and Belle had to put this salon for a reason too of course…

“Very well” the girl took out her wallet, and the 59 saints, she passed them to Belle, grabbing her hands as she did so “I still think you should charge more”

“Oh Elly… sweetie you know I don’t do this only for cash” Higher prices meant a less accessible business for many, Belle knew this, she preferred to have people enter her salon, to have the opportunity to grant one of their wishes, not just stare from afar.

The girl looked at her “I know… thank you again, I will see you soon! I meant to finally get dad to leave the darkness of the mansion! haha!”

“Come back anytime! I’m sure we can give him an actual style!” Belle couldn’t help but follow up the girl’s little joke, she was always so eager for a good laugh… you wouldn’t think she’s the same young girl that was almost hung for…

Anyways, Belle looked at the clock “3 hours!?” She was amazed, how could she take so much time in a simple cut and stylization? In moments like this she was glad her clientele was very selected, imagine the stress that would mean to have a line waiting for a haircut, yes, she can always make more of her to help around, but still, maybe that was why her works where always so perfect, with the time and calmness that her works needed…

She grabbed the broom and swept away the remaining burgundy hair, the “day” was not over yet and she had to keep the place lean for her next client… if it came today of course…

So that was my first entry for Oc-tober 2023!

This is my first time doing this, so any type of advice is really welcomed!