(no subject)

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee, awake in the wee hours of the night, is feeling a bit bored and frivolous.

So, he sits at the bar with a glass of gin, a mirror, and a catalogue of fashion sunglasses. Each time he comes across a pair that he likes, he asks the Bar for it so he can try them on, even taking selfies with his smartphone to see how he looks in photos with them.

It's an utterly vain way to pass the time. But whatever.

Eventually he collects a small pile of favorites, but can't decide which one to keep.

Comments

[runningred]

Jay comes in from a night run in the forest, testing new armour. The front of one armoured greave marked with carbon scoring. Someone's been playing with the demon bunnies.

He puts his helmet down on the bar and asks for a bottle of water. He drinks most of it in one go, grinning at Emcee. He nods at a particularly sparkly pair. "They suit you."

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee looks at Jay with an instant smile and a pair of rhinestone-studded sunglasses on his face. He leans over to kiss him on the cheek, not caring if he's sweaty or smelling all burnt up.

"Not too ostentatious?"

[runningred]

Jay loves the way Emcee doesn't care if he's a bit sweaty. And the way he looks in silly glasses. Jay laughs and kisses Emcee's nose. "Perfectly ostentatious."

[i_am_your_host]

"In other words, very me," he chuckles, sliding the glasses off and returning them to the collection he's gathered.

"I'm not sure what look I want-- something different, but not boring..."

He puts on another pair of shades and turns to Jay. "What do you think of these, darling?"

[runningred]

"Like a cool Bond villain." Jay smiles, slicking Emcee's hair back. "Black ski suit at an exclusive villa somewhere in the Alps. A clever trader in expensive things who flirts with the hero just to make him squirm."

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee giggles brightly at such a fanciful characterization.

"Bond-? Oh, wait, I know that reference, James Bond, the spy! You think I look like I could take him on?" he laughs, voguing in the mirror.

"Oh, I like this game. Here, what about this pair?"

He switches the villain glasses for pink gold rims and puckers his lips at him.

[runningred]

"You look like the sort of savvy operator he'd have to come to for information." Jay purrs, a hand on Emcee's hip. "And would make him sweat for it."

Jay leans back to get a better view of the overall look. "Playful stranger at a holiday resort. Someone who befriends and tempts unhappily married people away from the pool and into the shade of the cabana bar."

[i_am_your_host]

"Mmm, goodness knows I could make you sweat and you wouldn't even have to move a muscle," he murmurs with a grin, sweeping his hand up Jay's arm.

After turning his head this way and that, he agrees with another giggle. "Spot on, darling. I like the sound of being a 'holiday temptation.'"

[runningred]

"And don't you know it." Jay chuckles, leaning in to press a kiss to the side of Emcee's neck.

"Add a Hawaiian print shirt and I can see it ending with both both sides of the marriage ending up in your bed. Running into each other as one sneaks in and the other sneaks out."

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee swivels around on the barstool to hook both legs around Jay's waist, just casually, like you do.

"That sounds like the premise of a delightful screwball comedy. Emphasis on the screw. Funnily enough, I actually have been caught between marrieds, but very few of them wanted to share."

[mogget_cat]

Someone sneaking up on silent feet has the audacity to photobomb the next shot, grinning unrepentantly.

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee presses the button just as the extra face appears on the screen. With a surprised "Oh!" he turns around to find the interloper.

"Sneaky!" he giggles, lowering the glittery, rhinestone-studded sunglasses down the bridge of his nose. "But we are a fabulous pair nonetheless. What do you think?" He shows Yrael the captured image on his phone, Emcee making pouty lips and Yrael lurking just over his shoulder looking like the cat who ate the canary.

[mogget_cat]

Yrael laughs, grinning as he peers at the picture, at the contrast of Emcee's dark hair and pale features next Yrael's white hair and pale features. "That turned out rather well, I think! Practically artistic, Emcee."

"Light and dark... There's a painting metaphor in there somewhere, probably, but it's beyond me to find it," he chuckles, taking the seat next to Emcee. "Testing out an array of new shades?"

Ah! Found it.

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee smirks. "...Clever boy." He sees what you did there, Yrael.

Taking off off the sparkly sunglasses, he sets them aside and sorts through the selection he's collected.

"I just wanted to accessorize my summer daytime look, which is not something I have ever thought of doing before. But I know someone who lives in Los Angeles and I hear it's very sunny there. Now, which do you prefer, the purple--" He pauses to switch glasses. "--or the green?"

[mogget_cat]

Yrael is only a tiny bit smug about the pun.

Maybe more than a tiny bit. :3

Yrael considers the look each set of shades gives, head tilted. "Hmmm. While I admit I am biased towards the green, I almost think it would depend on the circumstances. The purple does go so well with your attire."

[i_am_your_host]

"Decisions, decisions," Emcee sighs dramatically, as he tries on the purple glasses again to look in the mirror. "I do agree that there might be some circumstances that call for green and other circumstances purple. Then again, I also agree that the purple just feels right for me. Ugh. Decisions!"

[deadeye_shot]

Hawkeye, seated at the bar with a cup of coffee, has been watching Emcee pick up the sunglasses, put them on, and then hold a device up to his face, making it flash. It's only after the third selfie that she realizes the rectangular device might be a camera.

But it's so small. And she thinks she's seen something similar, when Cisco showed her the cat and dog videos. How odd, she thinks, and lifts her cup of coffee to her lips. After another selfie, she gets up the nerve to ask, "Is that a camera, Mr. Emcee?"

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee has just put on a pair of sunglasses with glittery, rhinestone-studded rims, and he turns to Hawkeye with a smile.

"It's called a smartphone, Lieutenant," he replies. "And no need to call me 'Mr', my name is neither my last nor my first; it simply exists on its own."

He holds up the phone, the camera app still open, offering it to her. "Would you like to try it? It's technology from the future, mine and probably yours as well."

[deadeye_shot]

"Neither your last nor your first?" Hawkeye says, pondering that aloud while she curiously takes the offered smartphone.

She holds it up in front of her own face, like he was doing. When she sees her own face reflected back at her in perfect clarity, she strangles a gasp, because she is Riza Hawkeye and Riza Hawkeye does not gasp in surprise. "I can see my own face."

[i_am_your_host]

That did sound a bit cryptic, didn't it? Emcee is rather pleased about how that came out.

He gets up and comes over to her, leaning into her personal space so that both of their faces appear on the screen.

"Incredible, isn't it?" he beams. "And with the touch of this button here--"

He reaches up to tap the shutter button, a small light flashes, and--

"Voilà! Our picture is taken."

[deadeye_shot]

Hawkeye is blinded by the flash more than she thinks she ought to have been. She blinks to clear the white spots from her vision. "That seems so simple," she says, glancing at the phone once she can see again. "Where did the picture go?"

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee points to the bottom of the screen where a tiny thumbnail image has appeared.

"It's been saved to the gallery. Just tap that right there, and you'll see it. It's called a digital photo, instantly produced, no film or darkroom accoutrements necessary!"

[deadeye_shot]

She taps the thumbnail as he indicated, amazed when the enlarged photo reveals itself. "Is this posted to the internet?"

That's how you say it, right?

[i_am_your_host]

"Oh, no, no, it's not," he chuckles. "I haven't quite gotten that far, but I suppose I will have to figure that out sometime soon. No, it's just saved to this particular device's memory. Let me show you what else is on it."

He swipes the photo, and it scrolls back to show the previous one he'd taken just minutes ago, of himself wearing pink tinted glasses. He swipes again and again, showing more sunglasses selfies. Then the images change, featuring what looks like a big party: crowds of people dancing and drinking under colored lights, people singing into microphones, Emcee making faces with friends who she may or may not recognize (but since she's new, she probably won't).

"Ah, that was the New Year's Eve celebration I threw here. I have some video of that, too, would you like to see?"

[deadeye_shot]

"Yes, please," Hawkeye says, intrigued by the prospect of seeing video again. "A young man named Cisco Ramon showed me videos of dogs and cats. They were fascinating."