ArchivedLogs:Vignette - Another Brick in the Wall

Vignette - Another Brick in the Wall
Dramatis Personae Tag
In Absentia	2014-10-08 Bringing a little color to gainful employment.
Location <NYC> Chio-Shui Hair Salon - Chinatown
Tag slouches over the sink, washing his hands mechanically. He doesn't bother applying stains to them anymore. His boss can certainly tell how much hair dye he doesn't use up, so it obviously isn't a point of contention so long as his customers are satisfied. Public secrets are the Chinese way. The mirror before him, gleaming on the surface but dingy in its depths, shows a well-put-together man. He wears a black dress shirt, black apron, and black slacks, set off by a rainbow belt and a broad, bright rainbow streak on the right side of his fringes, long enough to tuck behind the ear. Even the stitching in his black clothes have a faint iridescent sheen. Drying his hands and unrolling his sleeves, he ducks into the break room for his backpack. "Ama, I'm going," he calls into the store front as he hangs up his apron. The proprietor looks up from her monitor at the counter overlooking her cramped little salon. "{Remember you have an appointment at 10 tomorrow. And take those shui-jiao. Best to eat them tonight, they won't keep.}" "Okay, thank you!" Tag ferrets a plastic bag from the ancient seafoam green refrigerator and stuffs it into his backpack. "Bye!" And he is out the back door before anyone can drag him into some other task. He unchains his glittering pink bicycle from the railing in the alley behind the salon. When he settles the chrome helmet on his head, the hair sticking out from beneath it transforms, the rainbow streak expanding to swallow up the black. The cuffs of his shirt and slacks fade to white as though dipped into bleach, and the gray running up his sleeves and pant legs twists and swirls like smoke. The bike itself goes from pink to bright metallic red as he sets out. Only the observant would notice that a single brick in the has turned sky blue, joining a dozen other spots of vibrant color in the narrow alley.