247/What's this

What's this
Date of Scene:	05 August 2015
Location:	Mitakihara - Fairy Drop Fashionables
Synopsis:	Lena gets ready for the Gala, and Shiori talks about sleeping problems.
Cast of Characters:	Shiori Sato, Lena Reiniger

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Lena Reiniger has posed:
There's that WPS gala coming up, and something about the whole thing doesn't sit that well with Lena. It might have something to do with the run ins with Miss White, but who can be sure? Whatever the case, she's decided to make a point of being there. At first she'd thought to wear her uniform, but standing in front of her mirror, wearing military garb made her realize how incredibly stupid that idea was. So, with little choice in the matter, Lena has resigned herself to shopping for some formal clothing. At least one dress, probably more. But with her arm the way it is, she's thinking it might be best for her to get someone to carry things for her and... well, she kind of wants to have some social interaction beyond doctors after everything she's been through. But looking through her contacts reveals she really only has the one option, so she texted Shiori to see if he was free. It might be a bit on the late side, but surely he'd be willing to come out.

So she's standing in front of the shop she had said she would be, waiting. A black, sleeveless shirt and skirt on, with a matching hat on her head. Her right arm stands out, though, being in a brace from shoulder to wrist, immobilizing it. Thus her telltale bracelet is on her left arm tonight.

Shiori Sato has posed:
Thankfully Shiori doesn't really have an official curfew, so long as it's not 'omg stupidlate on a school night'. So he should be able to manage a few hours out that night. He'd texted Lena back to say pretty much exactly this, that his parents were not overly concerned unless he stayed out 'till all hours of the night, and that he had a few hours.

Due to the late hour he took a taxi rather than the bus, not wanting to deal with the weird night crowd on the buses. He'll get there pretty quickly, since there won't be any stops, so there's that too. He pays and then thanks the taxi driver, then gets out and looks for Lena. Once he sees her he smiles. "Hi there," he greets. Pauses, and looks at the store. "Oh. Uh. I don't know much about girls' clothes," he cautions. "So if you're asking for opinions, I hope you don't mind that it's just going to be my opinion."

Lena Reiniger has posed:
It hadn't even dawned on her until after she got in touch with him that his parents might not be okay with him going out too late at night. She's been on her own so long that she's kind of forgotten that people her age should probably still have parents living with them and all that fun stuff. But it all works out, so there's no need to feel bad for asking something she should have known better than to ask.

She's just looking around, watching people come and go when he shows up. She looks up and waves, moving to meet him halfway. "Sorry for dragging you out so late," she says, maybe looking a touch guilty with how she doesn't directly look at him. But to his concern, she shakes her head and laughs. "No... I mean, it'll be nice to have someone's opinion but mostly I just... well, might need some help carrying things." She motions to the arm she doesn't currently have use of while her face flushes just a touch. It's more than a little embarrassing to show herself injured in front of someone like this, but what could she do? But wait! There's more! Worrying on her lip a bit, Lena does finally admit with a shaking voice, "and... I didn't really want to spend the whole night alone, and it was between you and Mina..." And we all know how that probably would have gone.

Shiori Sato has posed:
Shiori hadn't noticed that, but when Lena brings his attention to her arm brace, he winces. "Oh, ouch," he comments. "I'm sorry. But sure, I can help you." He smiles. And then Lena also mentions her choices between companions for the evening... and Shiori snickers. "She'd have you parading down the main drag with a pineapple on your head, shouting random phrases in English." Why that? It's the weirdest thing he can think of to do at the current moment.

Lena Reiniger has posed:
And it's probably not that far from the truth! Minako's definitely not a first choice for companionship right now. She snickers and nods, "She probably would." As for her arm, there's really nothing more she can do than shrug and lie. Would he even believe something like 'yeah, I got into a magical fight with other magical people and broke my arm nearly killing someone'? Well, that last part she might leave out anyway! Nobody needs to know what she was -intending- to do. Instead, as she turns to begin heading into the shop, she simply says, "I had a bad fall while I was doing my evening exercises." That's... definitely not the best lie she could have told.

Anyway! Lying aside, coming in sees them greeted by the owners of the establishment, though they seem a bit surprised at getting customers so late. "Oh, my! Hello there dears," says the somewhat older lady as she looks up from the register.

Shiori Sato has posed:
Shiori doesn't ask about it beyond that, just nods. "I hope you feel better soon," he offers simply. If Lena wants to talk more about it, she will. Because that seems unlikely, but it's not his place to question. However, he does want to ask her something. "...Hey, Lena?"

However, he pauses as the older lady greets them, looking to her in surprise. But he greets, "Hello, ma'am." He stays quiet after that, for the time being anyway. He's not here to buy clothes, after all.

Lena Reiniger has posed:
She'd have asked what he wanted, but that interruption pretty much stops all of that. Instead she smiles, gives a slight bow of her head and looks around some. But soon enough Lena does speak up. "I hope we're not causing too much trouble this late." Once again, she hadn't even considered that stores might be closing at this hour, especially considering the lack of people in the place. It really does kind of look like they're ready to close up shop.

"Oh, no trouble at all dear. We can stay open a bit longer for a lovely young couple," the lady replies, offering the two of them the brightest of smiles. "Just ask if you need anything." And with that she goes back to what she was doing.

Lena is caught by surprise and finds herself looking at Shiori a moment before going right back to staring at clothes. Are her ears getting just a bit red? Well, maybe just a bit. "Um... well, thank you," she finally says before moving in further. Quiet for a while, she looks around through dresses, decidedly fancy and somewhat expensive dresses at that. Soon enough, she calls back. "Um... so... you wanted something?"

Shiori Sato has posed:
'Couple'? Shiori goes a little red in the face, too, and raises a hand to rub at the back of his neck sheepishly. He doesn't say anything to dissuade the notion though. He doesn't want to embarass the woman, after all. "Aa, th-thank you," he says, and then follows Lena further into the store.

He stays quiet while Lena looks through the dresses; this is not his area of expertise! Though Lena calls back to him to continue, and he nods. "Oh uh. Yeah." He steps over a little closer and asks quietly, "Have you... recently found yourself falling over and just going to sleep, with no real explanation why? Just like... literally falling asleep on the street or on the sidewalk?" That could have been how she hurt her arm, even!

Lena Reiniger has posed:
She's just going to do her best to pretend that couples comment didn't happen, though she can't help but look back every now and then at Shiori. Did they look like a couple? She shakes her head, trying to clear it of thoughts like that! Back to looking through dresses. She pulls a plain white number and looks at it before deciding against it, frowning slightly as she replaces it.

She does stop her searching at that question. "No, can't say I have," she finally says. There's a number of reasons why someone would do that, both mundane and not so mundane. She can definitely think of at least one not so mundane reason right off the top of her head. "Did that happen to anyone you know?" She finally asks as she comes to a dress displayed on a mannequin. A black dress with a floor-length skirt, trimmed in white frills at the bottom and again near its middle. The top's nearly sleeveless, with a gold trim at the neck line. A pair of matching elbow-length gloves completes the look. "You think this would look good?" She asks, motioning to it. Just... ignore its price tag for now, it's definitely not like she's seriously thinking about spending 110,000 yen.

Shiori Sato has posed:
"Well, uh... yeah, it happened to me," Shiori replies. "At least I... think it did. It was so weird. It just... you ever wake up and not remember falling asleep? It was kind of like that. I was in the library actually... and then suddenly I started dreaming about a girl fighting a giant spider. But when I woke up I was standing up, and I could have sworn I hadn't even been asleep..."

Suddenly dress! Shiori tilts his head. And then something occurs to him. "Something on those lines, yes," Shiori agrees. "Black and gold would have you cut a striking profile, with your coloration and the features of your face." Pause, blink. What is he talking about? He sounds like he might actually know! But then he looks confused, too.

Lena Reiniger has posed:
She'd have probably been thinking about what he'd said, but there's no time to really process it at first thanks to Shiori's suddenly commenting on something he'd said he wasn't an expert on earlier. So Lena looks over her shoulder at him, brow arching up a little with quite the smirk on her face. "Oh yeah, definitely don't know anything about girl's fashion," she says before looking back at the dress.

Finally she lets his problem sink in and she finds herself frowning. Normally she'd have said it was just a dream and he'd been overly tired. But Unadministrated World #97 has proven recently to be far more magical than the TSAB had briefed them on. So she's pretty sure that wasn't really a dream. Just a question of what caused him to do whatever it was he did. Well, the dress is filed away for a possible choice and she moves on. "Sounds like you were probably just really tired and had a weird dream," she admits, while pulling a much less expensive piece off the rack; a white, strapless piece, frilled slightly at the bustline and going down into a pleated skirt. She doesn't say anything, but holds the dress up for Shiori to see. "Or maybe someone put a spell on you?" she asks, while trying to do her best teasing smirk. It doesn't really come across that well, especially since she knows someone probably did do that.

Shiori Sato has posed:
Shiori looks sheepish all of a sudden. "Well, I... didn't think I did," he notes. "I mean... no sisters, I'm not a girl myself." Wryly he notes, "Obvious on that last one, I know..."

As for being really tired? "...Maybe. I'm not sure though... maybe I was just studying /too/ hard. And being particularly perceptive, because there was a girl asleep in the chair and that's what she was dreaming about too. Weird."

And then another dress! Shiori tilts his head at the white dress, a hand going to his chin. "Hm. I'm not sure about that one, it might make you look too soft. Less regal and more... fluffy, you know?"

Lena Reiniger has posed:
She frowns at that explanation, but she doesn't say anything more on the matter. Instead her focus goes back to the dress that she has been informed would make her more fluffy. "More... fluffy?" She asks, looking at it and then looking down to herself. The dress is placed in front of her as she looks down and, while it isn't the best view, she thinks she can see what Shiori's getting at. After some time thinking about it, she decides fluffy is not a word she wants anyone using to describe her and quicklt the dress is returned right where she found it. "Too fluffy," she agrees.

So she returns to looking around, though her eye draws back to the black piece behind them every now and then. But only part of her mind is thinking about fashion while the rest considers what happened to her friend. Really the only thing that would make sense for any sane, normal person on this world would be that they had been really tired or overworked or -something-, but certainly not magic. Shiori, however, doesn't seem to buy into the too tired bit. Suddenly she's more looking back at him than to the dress, with a very obviously thoughtful expression on her face. Would it be alright to tell him that his world isn't as simple as it seems? She looks down to her bracelet, but her partner, this evening, remains completely silent. "What would you think if it wasn't anything so mundane?" She finally asks, deciding to test the water.

Shiori Sato has posed:
Shiori actually snickers a little at Lena's reaction to the 'fluffy' dress. "Something with sharp lines might do it. Maybe a dark color, like a navy blue or a forest green?" he suggests.

It actually takes a moment for him to notice her scrutiny. He's picturing Lena and a couple of the dresses that he's seen... Completley innocently, mind. And then he notes her scrutiny. Blink. The question gets a headtilt. "Well... there wouldn't be anything I could do if it wasn't just me studying too hard," he replies. "I'm just... me." Pause, and he seems to consider something. "Though I guess that would make sense, why no one seems to notice. It's scary thinking that stuff you don't even realize-- and can't do anything to stop-- might be going on right under your nose, right?"

Lena Reiniger has posed:
She stares at him for a while longer and then nods. "It probably would be," she says and turns back to looking for a dress that would suit her. Just what the hell is she thinking, pushing this sort of thing on his mind like that? He's right, what could he do about it even if he did know what was going on? Why give him something to worry about in that case? So for a while Lena is quiet, left with her thoughts as she searches. Eventually though, she speaks up. "Things are just going to get stranger." It's almost said off-handedly, like it was just a casual thing that happens.

And then she finds another dress on display. A sleek thing that hugs the figure, deep red in color and backless, with a halterneck to keep it up. There's a very modest slit up the leg. She pauses and looks at it before turning her attention to Shiori while motioning to the dress, as if to say 'well, how about this one then?'