The applause went on a bit longer than Rosela expected, and Antogio joined her briefly on the stage. Applause rose slightly for the now-familiar face at the festival, and Rosela joined in with two hands as she gave his arm an affectionate squeeze. ”Thank you, Antogio, I mean it. You’ve made this all possible,” she whispered back, and listened to the applause die down as he disappeared back stage.
There was a small pause as Rosela opened her mouth and looked out at the crowd, anxiety hidden behind her smile. There were much more women in the audience than she’d anticipated, and she hastily rearranged her presentation to accommodate. She started a bit at Antogio’s shout, and laughed openly, hoping the crowd would laugh it off as well.
“Yes, lets! Hello everyone, thanks for joining us at ‘Fashion for the Fit Form’. I see plenty of familiar faces, but to anybody I don’t know yet, I’m Rosela, owner of Red Diamond Fashions.” She indicated herself with a flourish and reminded herself to keep her back straight and tilt her hips just so. “When the schedule for the festival came out, I had a lot of people ask; who cares what goes on my body, so long as people can see as much of my rippling musculature as possible?” She briefly mimed a cocky strut, grinning when it worked and a wolf whistle went up from the back. “As much as I’m sure some of us would love it if leather thongs became all the rage, you have to admit,” She shrugged and raised her hands helplessly, even as a titter of feminine giggles ran through the crowd. “It’s just not the most practical thing to wear. For men or women.” A few gruff laughs replied and she saw more than a couple men elbowing each other.
“See, any barbarian can walk around in a thong. This is Riverfall; you’re better than that! Imagine an army,” she raised her hands to the left, as though indicating such an army. “An army of Riverfall’s sons – and daughters - cresting the hill: every sword and helmet polished, every warrior in perfect step.” There were a few nods in agreement, and she lowered her hands and moved them dismissively to the right. “Now let’s look down the hill at our little barbarian horde. No shining armor, no shining anything, just patches of leather sewn together and a few…heads on sticks. Now I’m sure those barbarians have great personalities,” She leaned forward innocently, nodding in mock solemnity as a small ripple of laughter went through the attendees. “But my man is going to be up on that hill, looking as fine as Wysar himself.”
There was half a breath before an urgent murmur behind the curtain prompted a tightly muscled Akalak to step out from the curtain. He strutted over, making a show of the walk, even as his lips twisted with contained laughter. As he came to stand beside her, Rosela waved a hand dramatically in front of his torso, clothed in a form-fitting, sleeveless shirt tucked into a pair of fitted black trousers. Likely the simplest outfit in the show, but she wanted to ease them into it. “Like Kadex here. Fit. Upstanding. Clean. A fine man, we can all agree.”
A voice rang up from the crowd. “Except when he loses at cards!”
“Try me later, boy; we’ll see who the better man is.” Still soaking in the attention, Kadex laughed and posed dramatically, turning his arms out to flex for the laughing crowd.
“And witty too. Don’t be jealous.” Rosela waggled her finger towards the section of the crowd, unable to pick out the originator amongst the gaggle of guffawing men. “If he just wanted to show off his muscles, sure, he could strip down-” She had to pause and playfully smack his hands away from his shirt as he was about to take it off, to a rumble of laughter from the audience. “But! He has more class than that. That’s what women want, right ladies?” There was a murmur of consent and a single ‘Yea!’ shouted up from the back. “Not just a bunch of muscles, but a man who takes care of himself and is aware of the face he presents to the world. And that,” She opened her hands to the crowd as Kadex moved to the presentation area, as if presenting a gift. He paused in the center and struck a cocky pose. “Is what we’re here to talk about. How to pick up women, and men,” she added with a wink. ”Without. Saying. A word.”
