Blinking, she eyed the poof and side-eyed her comb. Was she fully prepared to tackle frizz? Her hair was naturally limp, hardly any wave. She generally just let it air dry into whatever shape it wanted and called it good.

But, the dye needed dry hair... so she rolled her mental sleeves and got to work carefully drying and combing the sections of hair she would need.

"I have a little one on my wrist, too!" She edged her glove out of the way so she could show it off. A four leaf clover with a faded 13 in the middle. "My lucky number." She chuckled and got back to work, "I swear it felt like they were sawing my hand off when I got it done. The wrist is too sensitive, you know?"

Once the hair was dry she sectioned it off divided by the number of colors they had, tying each with a small hair band. "I have quite a few piercings in my ears... but i'm not brave enough to get them anywhere else. I've got a thing for needles." It was a wonder that she'd been able to get the first ones done at all... it helped that she couldn't see the sides of her head.

"Here we go!" She grabbed the first color, laid down a small section of foil and got to work adding the color in with her fingers. She'd found that it was much easier to make sure that the hair was evenly saturated if you could feel it.

Tattoo buddies! Were it not for the potential for mess she might even have suggested a tattoo-five, but with all the chemicals, not to mention combs and hairdryers, that was just asking for trouble. Wrists were pretty painful to get inked, she had also heard bad things about inside elbows and there was a nurse at her work who had tattooed armpits and she swore that was worse for pain than childbirth.

"Yeah, lots of people really hate the needles. I don’t mind them so much, give me that over a dentist drill any day.”

The fact that the drill was often coupled with a needle meant people who hated both were in for a particularly bad day.

”Here we go!” They were off! The colour was on! It was cold against her scalp, still warm from the hair-drying. And squishy, very squishy. She couldn’t see the colours being applied, but she could feel the progression through the bleached section, each new colour-blob sectioned off with some foil to keep it from being a hombre rainbow.

“Eee, I’m so excited to see it!”

Briefly she wondered if she hadn’t seen any natural rainbow hair since it looked just a little too much like a cheap clown wig. Her fear was fleeting. Her hair was going to look awesome. She trusted Shelby to get it looking awesome. Because rainbows are awesome.

“Ok I’ll do you!”

The dye was to be applied similarly to the bleach, but pulled through the length a bit too, to make for an even colour and top up the bits that had washed out a little over time. Little did she know that the bottle of dye was a trap. She shook it and in slow-motion the un-screwed cap flew off and pink dye- a brilliant magenta that was really only a shade away from red splattered in every direction.

Turns out they did need the wall-sheets after all.

*Cue screeches of horror*

The rainbow, even in its gloopy moist state, looked fabulous! She was satisfied with with it, and when she rolled the last bit of foil up she was already envisioning what it would look like. Heck, if it looked as awesome as she was expecting, maybe she would do it to herself eventually!

She moved into position so Zinnia could apply the pink to her hair, not expecting the pigmented explosion that was to come. She had just taken her glasses off when the bottle popped, and shrieked in girlish terror as the dye splattered everywhere. Across her t-shirt, her face, the floor and the walls... Her glasses flew across the room in her surprise.

She blinked, lucky that it had mostly missed her eyes, when the last drop settled. A glance around her room told the story of a hardened war zone. Or a scene from a certain hit serial killer tv show.

".... Ha!" She pelted out a laugh, reaching up to cover her mouth. "Hahaha! Oh my god!" They were a mess! The room was a mess! 

And it was so freakin' funny!

Once she had managed to calm down, she stood and plucked at her soon-to-be tie dyed t-shirt. "Do you wanna rinse off first, or should i?" After they agreed on who went first she shuffled off to her bathroom. She got the shower going and started carefully peeling off dye stained clothes.

It was a busy security shift. Incident paperwork had piled up, the contractors CS had hired also had their own hours logging and reports to examine and sign off on. He barely had any time to actually patrol.

Saphirus had ended up stuck in the office, glancing up at the security camera footage here and there as he penned away at vastly uninteresting things. He kinda wished he'd conned Jack into this shift, but he needed the hours, and it wasn't like she didn't have her own things to manage. He couldn't help but think about a certain someone the whole time, though...

The older mutant sighed deeply, and leaned back, rubbing his eyes for a moment, and then placing his hands behind his head. Maybe some coffee was called for. He'd been drinking a lot ever since he dropped hard liquor off the menu. It kept him from falling asleep during these long shifts, too.

He never noticed the exit camera, which showed Shelby and Zinnia leaving the premises. Some time later, though, a serendipitous moment after flicking a piece of paper folded into a tiny triangle over an imaginary goal and leaning back in the chair once more, he saw them on the way back in. "The f-" He leaned too far, and fell over, cursing loudly as he struggled to his feet an bolted out of the room.

- - -

Apparently today was ask the grumpy guy a question, start a small fire that needs putting out, and have a sudden uncontrollable coughing fit which lead to rooms somehow being filled with suds day for the kids of the mansion, because the moment Saph stepped out of the security office, things just started happening that urgently needed attention.

By the time he made it to Shelby's room to chew her out for leaving the premises, considering how dangerous it was, he was just in time to hear a loud screech.

He scrambled, tripping over himself, cursing up a storm in the hallway, and charging forward to bust open the woman's door.

What greeted him was a scene confirming his worst nightmare.

Blood on the walls, her glasses on the floor, also bloodied, and a woman standing in the center of it all, covered in what could only be Shelby's lifeblood.

He let out a roar of rage, and stormed over to her, reaching out two arms toward her shoulders and screaming loudly at the poor woman while shaking her like a rag doll. "WHAT DID YOU DO WITH HER YOU MONSTER?! DO YOU WORK FOR HIM?!"