Cass' expression clearly expresses disagreement, but ... she sighs. "What else am I supposed to do?" she murmurs. The state of the world is disheartening to say the least, and she has no idea where to even start. So she doesn't, returning to the comfortable bubble of her life. There's a small smile on her face, actually, at her mother's words. "I mean, sometimes, it's not that bad," she finds herself admitting in fact, inspired by the ever-growing hole in her life that is her father's absence and her mother's busy work. Even if, yeah, these words will definitely be taken back within the next few days, for sure - puberty doesn't know too much place for sweet honesty.

The student appears actually shocked at being called a phrenologist, but the worst part is how she doesn't even really have a rebuttal for it. "It's...!" she says, puffing her cheeks in lieu of any fact that she could use to help her point. Because, objectively speaking, her mother is correct there. In her heart, however, she knows that not to be true. There's something about the Furfrou that's standing out. "It hasn't made any problems yet, has it?" is the only thing that comes to her mind that she can fall back to.

That, and the collar that starts to be unearthed beneath all that dirt. In the excitement, she does indeed forget manners, and also- uh, what has been wrong with what she said? But turning to look away from the collar to her mother made her remember. She does her best to mask away the ooops sentiment, clearing her throat before she repeats, "Could you please call this number for me, dear mother?" ... ... Okay, maybe she really didn't have to go full historic on that one.

Then, she blinks. And looks back at the pokémon. And then back to her mother. And. "Achilles? That-?" she asks, bewildered - but now much of the mud and dirt is gone, the fur below ... actually. Yeah. This ... "I never would've recognised him." There's a faint smile on her face as she thinks about the purebred dog having fun out in the mud, freed from the general expectations of his owner ... before it turns into a slight shock. "Mom! We can't do that. Also, we already got so far." The Furfrou's now looking mostly clean, and there's only one thing left to do ...

"Hey, let's give him the best haircut ever, how about it?" she asks, trying her best to stay serious. "Then Mrs Dressler won't be able to say anything about haircuts anymore." Which, honestly, a stretch clearly motivated by Cass' desire to give the Furfrou a haircut. (One of her hands is also buried in the wet fur, and it's silky.) "There's a Furfrou show in a couple of hours, and she won't be able to change anything about the cut, and if she wins with this ...!"

Calpurnia Kubrick

There's universes and timelines in which Cass might be more eloquent. However, this Cass here right now has all the words in her mind, but together they simply make up a, "And?" Her tone is bristling a bit with defeat, but she's still hanging on - in theory. As there's arguments! in theory. (Yeah, maybe she lost that one.)

Cass laughs as Calpurnia also leans into the Jane-Austen-period speech, but there's things still preventing this call from being made. Her shock at her mother's words are quickly calmed down by her reassurance, even if some words flash into her mind again. Legal jargon, mostly, that she still dares not to understand - but there's something in the shadow, she feels. Something she isn't ready to face ... yet.

She doesn't have much time to think about it, as her mother unexpectedly agrees with glee. Now, that's reason for a bit of doubt, but also. "Really? Amazing!" she beams. Now, she doesn't really question her mother's intentions at all. "I've practiced a lot since last time, and I'm getting better ..." she carefully orders the strands of fur on the Furfrou, before drying her hands and tying her hair into a ponytail. Maybe she did also spend quite some time on hairdressing practice, ahem.

The mention of dad always hurts a bit, when she's remembering his absence, but she nods with a smile. "I'll get Achilles a bit dried up!" As before, Achilles seems to be entirely used to the procedure, not batting an eye at everything going on at all. "Now, let's see what we might do ... Do you have anything you prefer? Maybe something star shaped? I think yellow would fit you, but I'm not sure if we got any for that ..." While generally approving of dyes, she also is somewhat reluctant towards them - especially towards her own hair, which also makes her feel like a hypocrite.

"Mom, what do you think we should go for?" she asks once her mother returns with the necessary tools.

Calpurnia Kubrick

Cass remains blissfully unaware to the inner machinations of her mother, and instead focuses entirely on what to do with this particular Furfrou. "My pokémon! My friend's pokémon and my friend themselves - it was a rocky road, but I've gotten really good! I haven't really done any Furfrou styles in particular, but a nice trim should come out well ... I don't think we have the particular things needed for a proper styling, anyway." Given that she has no training, she's mostly been mastering the arts of washing and caring for hair and fur, with some trimming involved, but she hasn't found the courage yet to do some wilder styles. Even if Thea and Knight would probably agree to be guinea pigs.

She's still pondering trims as actually, her mom does something unexpected. In her excitement, Cass also fully doesn't register the dubious glee in Calpurnia's eyes, and simply registers the bottle in her hand. "Oh, ... oh?" she asks, excitedly, taking the bottle. Now, there's some more ideas to be had ... even if they'd have to be kept fairly simple, given that Cass has no idea how to selectively dye fur. "Thank you so much!" she says, happily. "Yes, thank you, mom!" Her voice is sweet and sincere, transported back to simpler times as Cass turns to the Furfrou.

"Now, whatever shall we do ..."

Cass decides to start with dying first (in case she might want to just trim some mistakes away), and dyes the Furfrou's paw and ear a nice purple, matching Calpurnia's hair in particular. Only as she sees it does the suspicion arouse that her mom might've intended something in particular with the colour ... but she doesn't let it hold her back. Next up are some very careful dyes of the general fur, in an attempt to achieve a nice ombré look ... which is harder to do, so she trims and leaves it be at a clean white with some speckles of purple that she worked really hard to try to have it look intentional, like a beautiful dotted pattern on horses.

At last, she finally trimmed some more, giving the Furfrou a good, fluffy shape ... especially puffing up the paw area to make it look like clouds in the late afternoon. "I wish we had some orange dye, too, then we could've gone with a whole afternoon cloud motif ... but what do you think?" She asks the Furfrou and then also her mom as she walks back into the room, presenting the Furfrou. Her hands are definitely stained from the purple dye now, too, as she still moves to curl a few strands of fur here and there, adding to the cloud look.

It's definitely not a professional's work, but it's pretty good for a first-timer.

Calpurnia Kubrick