[silkcasket]

⋆‧°𓏲ּ𝄢 prompt 81; sender helps receiver [ dye / style ] their hair. w/ @smantis

Loki had learned that "home" wasn't a place you just lived, but a series of quiet adjustments. He had successfully merged his early-riser gentleman habits with Mantis softer, more fluid schedule—finding that middle ground where the world was quiet, the coffee was hot, and the bed was still warm.

Every morning followed a sacred ritual: he would slip out of the covers, prepare a healthy breakfast for a very lucky Shrimp, and then—true to his promise of being the perfect "housewife"—he would crawl back into the sheets and tuck himself along with her.

On those mornings when Mantis felt particularly heavy with laziness, Loki didn't mind. In fact, it was another excuse to stay. He would pepper her face with tiny kisses, watching for that first flicker of her antennae.

"Good morning, my lady," he whispered, his voice smooth and low, grazing her temple with a kiss.

[smantis]

"Vampire? What do you mean? Do tell me, I am curious," Mantis watches with interest the way he moves in the mirror, trying her best not to move as he works on her hair.

Once it was gone, it felt... weird. She did not think her hair was heavy, but with so much of it gone (even despite so much of it staying)... it felt like a weight lifted, somehow. Odd. But freeing, somehow. She smiles, tilting her head upward to angle it more toward Loki.

"And yes, of course you may~" she answers his request, making a silly fishy face up at him, lips puckered with a glint of silliness in her eyes.

[silkcasket]

⋆‧°𓏲ּ𝄢 prompt 81; sender helps receiver [ dye / style ] their hair. w/ @smantis

Loki had learned that "home" wasn't a place you just lived, but a series of quiet adjustments. He had successfully merged his early-riser gentleman habits with Mantis softer, more fluid schedule—finding that middle ground where the world was quiet, the coffee was hot, and the bed was still warm.

Every morning followed a sacred ritual: he would slip out of the covers, prepare a healthy breakfast for a very lucky Shrimp, and then—true to his promise of being the perfect "housewife"—he would crawl back into the sheets and tuck himself along with her.

On those mornings when Mantis felt particularly heavy with laziness, Loki didn't mind. In fact, it was another excuse to stay. He would pepper her face with tiny kisses, watching for that first flicker of her antennae.

"Good morning, my lady," he whispered, his voice smooth and low, grazing her temple with a kiss.

[smantis]

"Oooh? You are working on shapeshifting magic lately?"

Mantis turns upon the stool, looking back at Loki and his acquired tools from the bag he brought in.

"I wonder if shapeshifting magic is similar at all to my ability to remake myself a body. I can take any form I wish, but I have to focus with strong intent and have the proper organic materials around to do so with. I have had many forms before this one. I have gotten more efficient at it each time I had to make a new body, I feel. But perhaps it is something I can help with!"

She smiles at him, but inevitably her eyes catch on the scissors he takes out. Wanting to behave nicely for him when he's doing her such a kind favor, Mantis moves herself back into her position from before, facing the mirror, still so that if he starts cutting nothing unexpected happens.

"I trust you. Perhaps to my knees would be good for a start, now that you mention it. We can always come back later and go shorter if need be, surely. Right?"

[silkcasket]

⋆‧°𓏲ּ𝄢 prompt 81; sender helps receiver [ dye / style ] their hair. w/ @smantis

Loki had learned that "home" wasn't a place you just lived, but a series of quiet adjustments. He had successfully merged his early-riser gentleman habits with Mantis softer, more fluid schedule—finding that middle ground where the world was quiet, the coffee was hot, and the bed was still warm.

Every morning followed a sacred ritual: he would slip out of the covers, prepare a healthy breakfast for a very lucky Shrimp, and then—true to his promise of being the perfect "housewife"—he would crawl back into the sheets and tuck himself along with her.

On those mornings when Mantis felt particularly heavy with laziness, Loki didn't mind. In fact, it was another excuse to stay. He would pepper her face with tiny kisses, watching for that first flicker of her antennae.

"Good morning, my lady," he whispered, his voice smooth and low, grazing her temple with a kiss.

[smantis]

"Oh, you too?"

Mantis blinks in surprise, using Loki's reflection in the mirror to imagine what he must have looked like. It makes her smile - honestly, Loki could pull of many looks, he is very beautiful.

"I wonder how long it was?"

Her own hair was literally down to the floor, just a bit past her own height at 5'4"... she does not see many Earthlings with hair as long as her own, and she cannot blame them, to be honest. Maybe Loki was right - even if it was just a portion of her hair, maybe that could be a nice change, even if it is only a small one.

She contemplates this idea in the mirror, thoughtful in expression, looking as though she is zoning out a bit... but then she seems to come back mentally, a more determined look in her eyes now.

"I think we should. Just to my hips or so. But only if you don't mind helping me," she announces, looking at Loki's reflection in the mirror to gauge his reaction. She feels a bit nervous about the decision, but if it's Loki, she trusts him.

[silkcasket]

⋆‧°𓏲ּ𝄢 prompt 81; sender helps receiver [ dye / style ] their hair. w/ @smantis

Loki had learned that "home" wasn't a place you just lived, but a series of quiet adjustments. He had successfully merged his early-riser gentleman habits with Mantis softer, more fluid schedule—finding that middle ground where the world was quiet, the coffee was hot, and the bed was still warm.

Every morning followed a sacred ritual: he would slip out of the covers, prepare a healthy breakfast for a very lucky Shrimp, and then—true to his promise of being the perfect "housewife"—he would crawl back into the sheets and tuck himself along with her.

On those mornings when Mantis felt particularly heavy with laziness, Loki didn't mind. In fact, it was another excuse to stay. He would pepper her face with tiny kisses, watching for that first flicker of her antennae.

"Good morning, my lady," he whispered, his voice smooth and low, grazing her temple with a kiss.

[smantis]

Mantis yawns a biiig big yawn as she perches on the stool, blinking sleepily at the visage of them in the mirror - particularly with her gaze tracking Loki, how he moves so gracefully behind her as if he is not intimidated in the slightest by the challenge that is her hair in the morning.

It's kind of nice not having to be the one who deals with it lately, in all honesty, so she doesn't protest too much. He's very careful as he brushes, too, not unlike her impatient yanking and inevitable huffs of frustration. It is much less painful when the brush is in his hands - soothing, even. All tension relaxes from her body like magic as he works behind her, careful not to tug at the tangles, working through each section with gentleness that she would absolutely be purring over if she was a cat right now. Her droopy antennae pulse lightly, showing her soothed contentedness from where she sits as she listens to him speak.

"It gives me something to do. Sometimes I do wish I had magic to make my hair stay nice and neat, though - tangles are very unfun. I do not like those. It isn't uncommon for me to get frustrated with it and just dive into the sea and let the water sort out the messiness for me. Sea salt seems to do wonders for hair care, I find," she thinks aloud, relaxed enough to not worry about just speaking whatever comes to her mind as Loki works. "I do not think I have ever cut it, actually. At least not since I ended up in Pelagia. At first it was because I did not have the equipment to do so, but then I just found myself too used to it. It would feel like cutting off an arm at this point. Though, perhaps it would be easier to deal with... I do consider cutting it shorter every now and again. I am just unsure if it would suit me much after getting so used to it being long..."

[silkcasket]

⋆‧°𓏲ּ𝄢 prompt 81; sender helps receiver [ dye / style ] their hair. w/ @smantis

Loki had learned that "home" wasn't a place you just lived, but a series of quiet adjustments. He had successfully merged his early-riser gentleman habits with Mantis softer, more fluid schedule—finding that middle ground where the world was quiet, the coffee was hot, and the bed was still warm.

Every morning followed a sacred ritual: he would slip out of the covers, prepare a healthy breakfast for a very lucky Shrimp, and then—true to his promise of being the perfect "housewife"—he would crawl back into the sheets and tuck himself along with her.

On those mornings when Mantis felt particularly heavy with laziness, Loki didn't mind. In fact, it was another excuse to stay. He would pepper her face with tiny kisses, watching for that first flicker of her antennae.

"Good morning, my lady," he whispered, his voice smooth and low, grazing her temple with a kiss.

[smantis]

"Mmmfngnfmm..."

The first sign of life from Mantis is an incoherent grumble, sleepy and soft as she lifts her face from the pillow she somehow had not suffocated in the way she had her face buried in it. Perhaps the gills on the sides of her neck breathe air, too... a scientific mystery for another time.

Her hair, long and unruly, had fallen from any sort of styling it had been in before bed - often is the case that she attempts to put it into a messy bun to keep it from wrapping around herself if she tosses and turns, but somehow, during the night, it unravels anyways. It now cascades, semi-tangled, across the blankets behind her as she peeks over at Loki, smiling contentedly when he greets her with a sweet kiss to her temple, antennae drooping as she blinks sleepily at him as though they, too, are still suffering from the grogginess of waking in the morning.

"Loki..." she mumbles, a sleepy smile on her lips as she reaches out and wraps him in a hug, entrapping him in the blankets with her. "Caught you, now you cannot ever escape my grasp..."