Lissie & Lilly: Episode 18 - A "Hair"rowing Day

Lissie & Lilly: A "Hair"rowing Day (Photostory)

Lydia: I am thrilled you are having us over for tea Samantha.

MG: Oui, it is most exciting! I have never tried Japanese macha before.

Cecile: I’m sorry Samantha, but I could not find the snacks to go with the tea. I looked everywhere but we are out.

Sam: Oh dear, thank you for looking Cecile. I must have forgotten to restock after our last tea party.

Lissie: No snacks? NO SNACKS??? But that’s like no water at Niagra Falls! No rocks at the Grand Canyon! No dastardly deed running through my mind!

Sam: I am afraid we must make do Lissie. It is such a pity though. Macha can be quite bitter without something sweet to balance it.

Lissie: And I’m all about balance! Cake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Can’t be more balanced than that.

Cecile: Non Lissie, there is no cake either.

Lissie: Then we are all doomed… A barren Niagra in our bowels…

Sam: We shall simply have to flood your barren Niagra bowels with tea then. Have you seen Sawako Lilly? It is not like her to be late.

Lissie: She’s probably still in the bedroom studying her brain to submission. I’ll go check!

Lissie: Lilly! I knew you’d still be here! Come on, everyone’s waiting for you downstairs for tea. Just be warned though, there’s no snack so we might as well roll around in misery now and get it out of the way.

Lilly: Please tell everyone to start without me. I can’t come down right now.

Lissie: Was the no tea snacks news that devastating? Don’t worry, we can raid our Big Person’s secret stash #8 afterwards.

Lilly: It’s not that. I just… I’m not myself.

Lissie: ARE YOU AN ALIEN??? OR A CYBORG??? I knew it! No real doll could study as much as you do without bursting into a million shards of despair.

Cecile: Lissie! Lilly! What’s wrong? Are you both alright?

Sam: Why are you screaming Lissie? What has happened?

Lissie: Only that Lilly is either an extraterrestrial being or a cyborg meant to suck out our stuffing!

Lydia: Goodness Lissie, you had me worried something serious happened.

Lissie: You don’t think stuffing-less dolls is terrifying Lydia Charlotte? Oh you’re in for a surprise.

MG: While we wait for the surprise, let us all go down and enjoy le thé, the tea.

Lilly: You all go ahead. I – I’m feeling unwell so I won’t be joining you.

Lydia: What is it Sawako Lilly? Please tell us what is bothering you.

Lilly: It’s so embarrassing, but I guess I can’t hide it from you all forever…

Lissie: ARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO THE REAL LILLY??? SPIT HER OUT ROBOT ALIEN!!!

Sam: Your hair! Your hair is – !

Cecile: Blue!

MG: Purple!

Lydia: Green!

Lilly: I know it is, but I don’t know how this could have happened! I just woke up this morning and they were there!

Lissie: Did you eat something weird last night? Perhaps drink from a bottle labeled “toxic”?

Lilly: You know I haven’t Lissie, I’ve been studying nonstop all this time.

Lilly: Oh what I am going to do? How can I go out in public like this? It looks completely unprofessional!

Cecile: Mais très fantastique! It may be unprofessional but it is so avant garde, so stylish!

Sam: You must not fret Sawako Lilly. Your hair did this on its own so perhaps tonight it will go back on its own.

Lydia: Yes, Samantha is right. Don’t let that spoil your day. Come down with us and have tea.

Lissie: Some tea it’ll be though, when the snacks are all vacationing in the Bahamas leaving us nothing to clear the palate between chugs.

Lilly: You’re not supposed to chug tea Lissie. It is a shame though. I wish we had snacks to go with our macha.

*BOOM*

MG: What was that? The entire room shook!

Sam: We must go down and see if anything is damaged! Hurry!

Sam: Thank goodness, everything looks fine down here.

Lilly: What is that on top of the tea cup?

Lissie: SNAAACKS!!! SUGAR!!! Calories most glorious and divine! Even the Heavens realized our sugar free plight and seeks to deliver us!

Lydia: But… How can this be? I am certain it was not there before!

MG: Attendez! These types of snacks cannot even be purchased here. Where did they come from?

Cecile: Do you think… perhaps these are not actually snacks?

Lissie: Only one way to know for certain! And that’s in our stomachs! Go on and open it Samantha, or my cravings will open the gate to the netherworld!

Sam: They look like real snacks.

Lilly: They smell like real snacks.

Lissie: Do they taste like real snacks? That’s the real question we need to be asking here.

MG: I think we must be careful. We still don’t know how they got here.

Cecile: But can snacks even be suspicious?

Lissie: Hear hear! I second that motion! Let me interrogate them one-on-one in my mouth and we’ll know soon enough!

Lydia: Sawako Lilly, your hair!

Lilly: I already know it has colored streaks in it Lydia Charlotte. Didn’t you see it upstairs?

Lydia: No, the blue streak!

Lilly: Oh no! Did it get bigger?

Lissie: Lilly! It’s gone! The blue streak is gone! How did you do that?

Lilly: But-but I haven’t done anything! How could it just disappear?

Lissie: Are you sure you’re not a cyborg alien? How old am I?

Lilly: As old as time itself.

Lissie: Hmmm…. Well played… What pas –

Lydia: Come along Lissie, and stop interrogating. Now that we have snacks, we can finally have our tea.

Sam: Now that we are all here, we can begin. This is the chawan, the tea bowl.

Lilly: Lissie, where are your shoes?

Lissie: I don’t wear shoes! That’s for respectable dollfolk who care about propriety. All I care about is propane burners and the spark of revolution!

Lilly: I know you like your fires of rebellion, but still, I wish you had shoes for tea.

*BOOM*

Lissie: AGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Cecile: What happened?!?

Lilly: Is everyone alright?

Lissie: AGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Lydia: The earthquake again?

Sam: Uhm, but we are not on a fault line. What is going on?

Lissie: AAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!

MG: Lissie, what is wrong? Why you are screaming non stop?

Lissie: My feet! Look at my feet!!! LOOK AT THOSE MODEST, SENSIBLE THINGS ON MY FEET!!!!!

Lilly: You have shoes on!

Sam: How is this possible? What are you playing at Lissie?

Lissie: There is an evil power at work here and it means to make me a civilized person! I won’t stand for it!

Lydia: Wait just a moment, look at your hair again Sawako Lilly! The purple strand is missing now!

Lilly: You’re right! It’s gone! Do you think they’re related?

Lydia: They must be. Remember the first time the earthquake came? It was right after you wished for tea snacks and when we came down, there they were!

Lilly: That’s right! And just now, I said I wanted Lissie to put on shoes, and then it happened!

Lydia: Your hair is magic Sawako Lilly! Or at least the colored strands are. There’s no other explanation.

Lissie: Lilly, you must understand, a great weight and responsibility have been placed on your shoulders.

Lilly: They have?

Lissie: It falls to you to use your power to bring us unlimited glory, snacks, and borderline risky excitement for all time.

Cecile: Non, you must use your final wish for all the outfits we still do not have! Think of how much time and money we will save on eBay alone!

MG: Or you could wish to be done with l'école, school and have all the knowledge right now!

Sam: We need more books as well! You could wish for an entire library!

Lydia: If you wish for a new piano, I could teach you how to play, Sawako Lilly. Didn’t you tell me you always wanted to learn?

Lilly: Well, all of that sounds very nice but really I just wish my hair would go back to normal.

*BOOOOOOM*

Sam: Ahhh! Help!

MG: Oomph! Cecile, you are squashing me!

Cecile: Ohhhh, my head… I’m sorry Marie-Grace, but I cannot move because Lydia Charlotte and Lissie are on top of me.

Lissie: Lilly! What have you done?!? That was the last wish!

Lilly: And it worked! Look everyone! My hair is back to normal! Thank goodness!

Lissie: All that power… used on normalicy… Think of what we could have had!

Lilly: It’s no good thinking of what we could have had. We can have tea now, however.

Sam: I suppose if we had all the books in the world we would not really have a place to put them after all.

Cecile: Oui Samantha, and if we had all the clothes we would not have time to wear them.

Lydia: A piano would be nice but it can wait I guess.

MG: And what is the point of knowledge if you do not earn it? This is probably for the best.

Lissie: Well I stand by my wish! Unlimited glory, snacks, and dangerous fun is an excellent wish!

Lilly: Yes, but you are fully capable of obtaining that on your own Lissie. You don’t need me to wish it for you. Speaking of which, why are you holding the snack box so tightly?

Lissie: If I have to wear shoes and miss out on a wish, the least you can do is let me snuggle with comfort food.

Sam: Shhh! We are ready to begin.

This was a really fun episode for me to write! ^_^ I purchased the Jewel Highlights set when it was on sale but I was having a hard time deciding how to use them. None of my dolls are very avant garde and rebellious in terms of new fashion trends, and also the only doll with hair straight enough to wear them was Sawako Lilly. In the end, it occurred to me that magical things happen in threes, and the best person to give power to was someone who didn’t want it so Sawako Lilly fit that perfectly.

I love teas in general, but I recently received a package from my friend in Japan with lots of goodies (kimono for Sawako Lilly!), cute things, and delicious snacks so I wanted an excuse to eat them, hence the matcha tea. Matcha is a Japanese powdered green tea, used for tea ceremonies and formal tea presentations (it's really expensive to just drink for fun, so I save it for special occasions, like right before or after an exam to calm myself). It is scooped into the chawan (tea bowl) and hot water is added until the cup is about a third to a fourth full. This is for 2 purposes. First, the matcha is whisked vigorously until it is frothy and foamy, and if the cup were full, you’d spill tea everywhere. Not elegant. The other is so the bowl is not too hot to pick up and hold when drinking.

The sweets that go with matcha are usually traditional Japanese snacks and desserts, which are very sweet. This is because matcha itself can be bitter and the sugary snacks compliment the flavor of the tea just as the tea balances the sweetness of the snacks. The concept of balance is very important in Japanese culture (and how to manipulate that balance in asymmetry like bonsai and ikebana flower arranging). I don’t often make matcha for myself because it’s not that type of tea, but since it was a special occasion, (can’t risk the snacks going bad right?), I made myself a cup. :D

Thank you for reading L&L and I hope you all have a wonderful week! PS, I'm sorry for the horrible pun title! XD I'm such a sucker for horrible puns! ^_^ Please do share some if you know any bad ones.

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