A Dim Sum Place, Manhattan, New York City, Monday Afternoon/Evening

[suitably_heroic]

He'd been living here full-time for almost two weeks now. It was starting to settle in a little bit, though that general sense of lightness hadn't quite vanished from him yet. Atton wondered if it would by the end of the summer, when he planned to start looking for an apprenticeship and work his way up to a Real Job™, but for now that was a distant prospect.

Anyway, Summer had threatened to come over, and he had threatened to let her, but they hadn't actually set a date and he was vaguely worried they'd just let it slip past them-- one of those (un)comfortable situations where a friendship just petered out on its own due to lack of maintenance. He woke up with vague thoughts on the matter that morning, and decided to just do something about it.

And now he was sitting here in a pleasantly chaotic little Hong Kong-style restaurant at a cheap-ass table, the kind where, he had learned, you tended to find the best possible food. Checking his phone. Waiting.

She probably wouldn't get distracted by anything on the way here, would she?

[[ expecting one. ]]

Comments

[somethingwithturquoise]

It was Summer. Distractions were inevitable. But she also didn't want to have Atton waiting too long (only just a little!). But she did eventually make it to the restaurant, took a moment to spot Atton, waved, and headed over to join him.

"Okay, first off," she, looking decidedly more brunette that usual at the moment, said, "don't ask about the hair. Secondly, hiiiiiii, how's it gooooing? And, last but not least, do you know any good tattoo artist around here?"

And the she sat like that was a completely normal way to greet a person because obviously, how else would you?

[suitably_heroic]

Well, hello there, surge of both relief and amusement. Space, what had happened to her head? "Can I comment on the hair?" Atton asked. "Because I really need to comment on the hair, it's killing me."

Beat.

"And yeah, sure."

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer sighed, a big heavy sigh that sunk her down in her chair for a moment, but she seemed to lift herself back up with the roll of her eyes alone. "Fine," she said. "You have three minutes to get any comments or questions about the hair out of your system, and then we're never talking about it again. Got it?"

She herself would probably not uphold those rules, but that was beside the point.

[suitably_heroic]

"Okay, one, it's clear that nature intended for you to be a redhead, because whatever this is makes you look like an interchangeable side character from a CW series," Atton said. "Possibly even a British teen TV series if you keep the ponytail thing going. Add one of those sports jumpsuits and you're all the way there."

He leaned back. "Which leads me to two, did someone take you hostage and shove your head into a tub of hair dye or something?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer really wanted to be offended, but Atton was absolutely right on literally all accounts; if the brown hair was staying (which it absolutely was not), he'd have to lean hard into some other aesthetic to stand out more, and that just seemed like way too much extra work! So she was just sighing. Again.

"No," she admitted, "I did this to my own damn self, but at least dye isn't permanent. I just have to decide if I want to just ride it out or impatiently just dye it back to red again. Also, yeah, a big important lesson on how to not fuck with nature."

He looked at Atton for a moment, squinting as if deciding to anticipate any other questions or just cover all the ground just to get it out of the way.

"There was a party," she offered, "at Kitty and Clint's, and we played 'I Never,' and of course I'm going to throw out a hair color question because I've only ever been a redhead and it's a great way to get most of the other people in the room to drink, and either be mad about it or cheer you for it. But then the idea just got stuck in my brain, and I thought, 'you know what? It wouldn't hurt to try it.....'"

She pouted, gesturing toward her head.

"But it does hurt. Like, on a spiritual level."

[suitably_heroic]

"It's like a disturbance in the Force," Atton agreed, studying the hair. "Both fascinating and yet deeply wrong and unsettling."

But he was going to be good and stick to that three minute window! Look at him, not asking further questions!

[somethingwithturquoise]

And he didn't even have the added level of how, with brown hair, the fact that Summer took after her father was practically blown up to eleven.

"I hate it with every fiber of my being," she stated, just so everyone was absolutely clear on that. "I should have brought a hat...but anyway." Yes, officially time to move away from the hair, and if the hair color was throwing him any, maybe the familiar was in which she tilted her head and smirked would at least help pull him a bit out of the uncanny valley of her current palette shift.

"How is it going? And what's good here?"

[suitably_heroic]

Atton - who had gotten his hair cut to a middle length last week because screw symbolism, really - leaned back again. "I mean, it's all good here, but the rice noodle rolls are their big Thing," he said.

He glanced towards the menu like he hadn't been here often. "As for me, I'm still fine. Somehow. I don't really understand it, but I wrote a whole thing about it last week, so it's got to be true."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"A whole thing like a song or something?" Summer asked, with her own glance at the menu, though her attention was clearly going more into actually giving it a significant look with her fresh (and still the same color they always were) eyes. "Or just in your diary?"

Please tell her you had a diary, Atton, she would die.

[suitably_heroic]

Atton rolled his eyes. "A song. I'm not a fourteen year old girl, space."

Or whatever the same thing was for 40 year old men.

"We went to Long Island last week to hang around at the beach," he said. "Just to kind of wrap my head around everything. So I started writing it down. Not for this first record, that's all 'wow, my life used to be fucked up' stuff."

[somethingwithturquoise]

Although, if he was going to be a fourteen year old girl, this would be the time!

Summer would not recommend it, though.

She was smirking, however, her attention more on Atton than it was the menu for at least that moment. "Can't wait to hear it, then," she said. "That, or the 'wow my life used to be fucked up' stuff. I'm so glad you guys are finally getting on board with recording stuff, that's an awesome step forward."

[suitably_heroic]

"And terrifying," Atton admitted. "There's a whole lot of me in that track list. More than I originally expected."

Enough so that even talking about it made him want to deflect the conversation back onto Summer and her life, but it was easier to muffle that urge now than it used to be. (It was also easier not to feelingsvomit all over the place, which, he was grateful for. Weird therapy phase, that.) "But that was kind of the point of this all along," he said. "I think I got into the singing part because when you're up there in front of the microphone, you get to tell your own story your own way."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Plus," Summer pointed out, "if you really wanted to, you could always deflect with the plausible deniability that that's just art, you know? Fiction, exaggerated, or whatever, although I don't think anyone who really pays attention to you when you're up there would really believe that. You always feel the most comfortably....you, when you're up there, even if it's uncomfy, you know?"

There was a faintly wry smile.

"The stage at Caritas already misses you up there, man. Although I will say, Liliana did put up a good show last week to fill the void. Very different vibe, though, that's for sure."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton snorted. "Yeah, I can imagine," he said. "She's a little more dark, spooky, with some hints of Broadway."

He turned to the incoming server and ordered a soda. When that was done with, he added, "You're right, though. I don't know, it all just feels easier up there. I blame the guitars. Even back when I was completely lost and hanging around Fandom licking my wounds, the Caritas stage was there for me. Of course, my nights were mostly empty, so it was easier to get away with it."

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer was absolutely a 'just water for me' type, although as soon as she did say that, she almost felt like she should order something else, just because she realized that that was just about as bland as the current hairstyle she was sporting, ugh.

So she decided to be a different type by asking for a hot green tea.

"She went very torch-singer with it," she then informed Atton with a nod. "Pretty sure Tino had to go get a mop for the stage afterwards."

And, in thinking a little about what he'd said, her head tilted again. "Probably feels a little different, too," she said, "having more of an audience. Don't blame the guitars, though. I'm sure it'd be the same even if they weren't there. though they probably do help."

[suitably_heroic]

"They make me feel stronger, anyway," Atton said easily, shooting her an amused look over that whole green tea affair, but choosing not to make a point of it.

He sat up a little. "So, yeah. That's happening, and I'm feeling about three hundred percent less all over the place. Which I'm sure is a relief to you." She had met him in a particularly outwardly messy stage of his life. "How are things on your end? Besides making unfortunate hair dyeing decisions and dealing with Liliana."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"I mean," Summer pointed out, with a faint smirk, "you are literally way less over the place, in a very tangible sort of way now, so that just makes sense. You're not trying to balance three very different things right now, that's got to feel amazingly freeing, and, you know what? Good for you. You deserve to just live the one life you're really vibing with the most.

"As for me?" She shrugged her shoulders a little. "Same old, same old, I guess? I mean, you also missed me thwapped in the face with giant balloon animal dicks while trying to bunny hop across the island for Skywalker's shenanigans, so, I mean, at least I haven't been bored. And I'm also pretty sure I got to drink at practically every I Never at Kitty and Clint's party except one..." She nodded with a gesture of her hand. "That's where the tattoo part comes in."

Apparently, Summer didn't even need the island compelling her toward irony, she was just going to check those boxes on her own volition, albeit it with the compulsion canceling out her sometimes laziness about things like this.

[suitably_heroic]

"So what was the 'I Never' on that one?" Atton asked, taking his soda from the server as soon as they came back in.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"I've Never gotten a Tattoo," Summer reported, simply enough, with a shrug and a nod of thanks for the tea. "Pretty self-explanatory, but so help me, one of the weird outliers that definitely got me. So, of course, I have to fix that now. One of these days, maybe I'll hit a perfect record. But apparently not until I get a tattoo.

"I have been thinking about it for a while now, though," she added, lest Atton think she was just being motivated by the ability to check that off of some list, especially since a tattoo was a lot more permanent than a change in her hair color. "I've just never really just bit the bullet and done it. And, I mean, no offense to the guys at Ink & Holes back on the island, I'm sure they do great work, but since I'm already here, getting it in New York sounds so much cooler."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton held up his forearm. She'd seen the Stupid Lyric Tattoo before, of course, but it helped make his point. "This guy seemed pretty good," he said, lowering his arm again a moment later. "On the wordy ones, anyway. No Comic Sans or sailor hearts with phrases in them. He's in the neighborhood."

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer gave a wry smile, since she knew her style was going to run a little kitchier than Stupid Lyric Tattoos.

(Although the temptation to see the look on his face if she said she was getting herself branded with And all my friends smell like weed or little babies was strong).

"What about rocket ships and planets and stars?"

[suitably_heroic]

"He could probably do it?" Atton said. "I think Dane got some pretty cool lineart there, too. Just... don't expect him to put Taylor Swift's entire face in high detail on your back or anything."

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer had to smirk at that. "Well, I mean," she said, attention diverting again to the menu for a little more consideration with a sip of her tea, "with this brown hair now, I gotta figure out some way to stand out, right? Maybe you're onto something there."

[suitably_heroic]

"Hey, it's your body, I just retain the right to make fun of you for it for the rest of your life," Atton told her. "... Did you figure out what you want yet? For dinner, I mean. We can save the tattoo decision for when we get there."

Because he was apparently taking her now.

[somethingwithturquoise]

Well, Summer was about 95% on the tattoo decision already; dinner was maybe closer to 65%, but she was working on getting it up to 100, and now with renewed focus.

"Hmmm," she hummed as a bit for time as she looked a bit thoughtful. "Maybe. I mean, if those rice noodle rolls are their whole Thing, there's obviously going to be some of those, but then it's just a matter if I want to actually try to get real authentic with it or just be as basic as my hair right now and get the standard classics."

[suitably_heroic]

"Your call," Atton said. "I left the actual purist at home, and I'm not going to mock you too hard for just getting dumplings or something."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"There's a lot to be said, too," Summer pointed out, "about the classics done well, too. I mean, say what you want about General Tso, but, as someone who knows, it's easily one of the better things to come out of 1970s from a culinary perspective."

[suitably_heroic]

"On the other hand, why go to a place that does Cheung Fun properly and not actually have any?" said Atton, who was absolutely having rice noodle rolls, please.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Gives me an excuse to come back again soon," Summer countered, looking far too proud of herself for it. "But you're probably right. I feel like anything going off your recommendations too far would be an insult to your newfound nesting tendencies. Plus maybe something to inspire me to whip up something to make everyone acting like frog jello last week was a cry for help feel real stupid."

[suitably_heroic]

"I don't have nesting tendencies," Atton grumbled. "I'm just maybe kind of seeing someone who has really strong opinions about Chinese food, yet is absolutely terrible at cooking any."

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer wasn't smirking fondly at that grumbling, how dare.

"Now don't tell me that!" said Summer. "Because now I kind of want to ask what I could get that would get the best rant out of him, all so's you can go home and tell him and just listen to him go off for...how strong are we talking about? Fifteen? Twenty minutes? An hour? All night and possibly into the first thing the next morning?"

[suitably_heroic]

"On just about any other topic I'd say five minutes, tops," Atton said, "But Lana asked him about food variety in New York the other night and that one lasted at least half an hour."

He sipped his soda. "I don't think they serve the really touristy stuff here," he mused. "If you really wanted to set him off, I should've taken you to Panda Express."