Closed [Red Diamond Fashion] A New Apporoach

[Grace Lechar]

8th of Spring 514 AV

Grace Glanced down at her map and back up at the storefront. It looked small. Smaller than it seemed it should be. Jeno nudged Grace's leg, trying to get her out of traffic as line of children filed past, screams of delight ringing out as they played their game of chase. Kids were cute. Okay, here we go. Grace really had no idea what she was doing when she pushed open the door. Her mother had always made her clothes for her, she didn't even pick out colors or anything really. Now she was on her own and she needed to buy her own clothes. She had spent the last forty-seven days on a boat in the same pair of clothes. She wasn't dirty, no, but despite her attempts to make herself looked presentable, the red dye in her shirt had turned the brown of her pants and the seams on the inside of her knees were coming apart slowly. She was in desperate need of new clothes.

Grace glanced around, liking the small but organized shop. As far as she could tell everything was labeled nicely and easy to find. Grace nodded at the woman behind the counter, her eyes lingering on the two extra sets of arms. Grace's right foot caught on nothing and she blinked a few times before accepting the additions. It wasn't really her right question them. Maybe the woman practiced magic and this made the work here easier. The greater possibility was that she was another race, as Grace was beginning to find out how many there where. Her somewhat sheltered life in Syliras didn't prepare her for the diverse culture inhabiting Riverfall. Tearing her eyes away from the extra limbs, she couldn't help but wish she herself had multiple arms, they could definitely come in handy.

Grace stepped over to the women's rack, and started peering through the clothes, checking prices and cringing at most. They weren't terribly expensive, but Grace was to uptight about money, she'd never had to spend hers before. This idea of giving away what she earned was foreign, though Grace knew it was why she was paid. Grace had grown used to unconsciously rubbing the dog's ears when she was thinking. So when grace picked out a very plain looking wool skirt, a plain button shirt, and two sets of undergarments, she reached down to pet the hound as she calculated the prices on the tag. When her hand met nothing, Grace looked down. He was gone. Her damned dog had run off again.

"Petch," Grace hissed under her breathe, bending down to check under the rack's. She didn't want to alert the store owner of her missing dog, as people were often afraid of Jeno, the Akinva Deerstalker was an intimidating breed. "Jeno! Jeno, get over here!" She whispered, tucking the clothes under her arm and trying to peer under the racks, Grace dropped to her hands and knees to see better under the racks. She stood up suddenly, Laying the garment's over the rack and bent down, walking along the isle's in a very uncomfortable position. When Grace got down on her knees again she came eye to eye with a slobbering dog who didn't hesitate to spread his slimy saliva across her face.

"Ya stupid, wretched, mutt." Grace stood up, brushing her knees off. She glared at the dog and went to collect the clothes she had chosen, wanting to pay and get out before she could embarrass herself further.

"Hi, excuse me ma'am, can I get these?" She laid the skirt and shirt carefully down on the table as if they would detonate. Hopefully the woman wouldn't judge her too horribly on her fashion choices, as she clearly didn't know what she was doing. Grace placed her purse on the table tentatively, ready to pay. "I'm new in town 'n I'm just tryin ta find some clothes . . . generally. I 've gotta get a good amount of work clothes but I'd like something to just go to the market in, and a nicer dress or somethin' as well. Do you got any suggestions?" Grace hadn't planned on asking for help, but as she spoke it didn't seem like such a bad idea. The woman did this for a living, she couldn't mind helping out a customer could she?

"I'm Grace by the way," Grace stuck her hand out, wondering which one she would receive in return.

PC/NPC Talking

Common

Thoughts

PC/NPC Talking -- Common -- Thoughts

[Rosela]

Legs crossed behind the counter, Rosela hummed softly to herself as she looked between the two designs. It was her day to man the desk in the shop, and a part of her was glad to be back. It was hard trusting Hudon to be the face behind the desk the other 5 days, but she’d never felt so on top of her inventory. She was getting full nights’ sleep every night, pumping out fabulous designs every day, and almost every item in the shop was fully supplied with backups of sizes and color variations.

For the moment though, she had the luxury of not needing to work on inventory. She was considering starting a new line of ladies’ formal wear, exotic and rich styles that reminded her of Ahnatep. Long draping scarves and straight line skirts she could sell, but bare midriffs were simply not seen in Riverfall, and she’d have to find a way to test the waters in terms of how well such outfits might be received. She was sure the men would be happy – the more skin the better with them – but women here had never needed to show more skin to get noticed. Simply by dint of being women, they got noticed. There was some way to sell this, she just knew it.

Sighing, she laid both sheets down and a third hand picked up her dark green pencil. The second design was still in progress, uncolored and bare of the smaller details. She moved slowly, adding a series of small, hard lines at the front to indicate folds in the skirt there. On a whim, she shifted to the bottom of the dress and added small, decorative swirls there. High quality patterned fabric would be essential to pull it off…

The door opened at her right, drawing her attention away. Instinctively flipping the papers over, she slid them to the side as she smiled at the entrant. ”Hi there, welcome to Red Diamond Fashions. Let me know if you need any help finding anything.” After so long in Riverfall, she was well used to the stares at her arms, and accepted the attention breezily. The woman herself needed some serious help in the wardrobe department, and Rosela made a mental note to talk her into a skirt if she could. The ends of her own baby pink dress fluttered as she recrossed her legs behind the desk and she unconsciously adjusted the straps of the black top.

Movement low to the ground startled her, and she realized – too late – that she’d been too distracted by the customers clothes to realize she’d come in with a dog. A very big one. Lashes lowered suspiciously as she watched the black beast meander through the store, not touching anything…yet. Attempting to appear as though she wasn’t blatantly watching the pair, she pulled over her unfinished design and picked up her pencil again. More fold lines were added to the scarf thrown carefully over the drawn shoulder, and she made a note to the side in Arumenic that a clasp would be needed to hold it in place.

A hissed voice alighted on her ears and she glanced stealthily up without moving her head to see the young woman now scurrying through the aisle to find her dog. One eyebrow rose slowly and she swore vengeance on them both if it slobbered on her clothing. The poor girl seemed sufficiently mortified however, and when she finally drew herself to Rosela’s attention, Rosela did her best to appear professionally interested, as though she hadn’t been watching the pair.

”Yes, absolutely. Something nice, and maybe something for the market…” Sliding out of her chair, she rounded the desk and kept a purposeful distance from the dog as she led them back to the women’s section. She was surprised to see the woman was taller than her, even in heels, and it made her feel slightly better about her ability to control the dog. She had a sudden, distressing image of it taking a bite out of her skirt, but she forced herself not to jump away. Some people just liked big…slobbery…dogs, and it was her duty to serve all customers.

”Let’s see, your skin tone and hair, I’d suggest something green, or maybe a nice warm tan for summer…” Choosing to focus on the clothing, her hands picked through a display of skirts, pulling out a few for her to look at. ”If you want to go a little more formal, we do have some nice cocktail dresses in the next row, which will be just lovely now that it’s starting to warm up.”

Smiling, she clasped the offered hand between her two middle hands and squeezed gently. ”Lovely to meet you, Grace, I’m Rosela.”

[Grace Lechar]

[indent]"Let’s see, your skin tone and hair, I’d suggest something green, or maybe a nice warm tan for summer…" Grace's eyes widened slightly, realizing she could be getting into more than she could handle. She liked to look nice, and appreciated the fact that she was a woman and had the ability to look like one. The hard truth was that with Grace's line of work, she really had no time to focus on her wardrobe or hair, not as much as she'd have liked to. But as of now, she had no work. Grace was tired of looking like a boy when she didn't exactly need practical clothing. "If you want to go a little more formal, we do have some nice cocktail dresses in the next row, which will be just lovely now that it’s starting to warm up."

Grace nodded, having no sliver of an idea what a cocktail dress was. Her eyes floated back to the six arms, not quite used to the sight yet. The woman tossed side glances at Jeno, who followed on Grace's heels. He was more behaved than normal, but it was most likely because he was still a bit sea-sick. The dog didn't have the energy to get up and run around, yet. Grace turned back to the store-owner, she had guessed correctly. It was a pretty usual case, being labeled as an aggressive dog, Jeno was often avoided. No matter how aggressive his particular breed could be, her father had paid a fair amount of money for the dog to be trained, and Jeno's personality was generally pretty friendly. A bit overly-friendly actually. Grace rubbed Jeno's ears, if he decided to stray she could simply put him in a corner and make him sit. She didn't like doing that to her companion, but she didn't want to get on the shopkeeper's bad side. "Lovely to meet you, Grace, I’m Rosela."

Grace couldn't help but grin at how easily Rosela could handle her multitude of arms. The idea of the extra limbs freaked Grace out a little more than it should have, but it also impressed her. It seemed alien and rather hard to Grace. "Those make things easier? Quite hand-ey if you ask me." Her grin widened a bit at her own pun, but she didn't say anything else. Her parents still held Grace's mind closed to new ideas. The extra arms, which would have scared Grace's parents away from the whole city, just made Grace want to figure out what had caused it. "Yer whole family like that? Or did some sorta experiment go on?"

Grace turned her attention back to the clothes that Rosela was pulling from the racks, interested in her answer. Grace wasn't particularly good at fashion, nor did she have an eye for color, but to her all the clothes looked nice. They were nothing like the very plan garments that she grew up with, and a suprising amount where made from leather. Grace expected the leather garments to be uniform and more practical than pretty. Rosela had put a sort of twist on them though, making the practicality of them stylish as well. Grace recognized the amount of effort that she could see was put into each garment, as she tentatively peered through clothes that Rosela left on the rack. "Wow, you've got'a big selection here. You makin' all these yourself?"

PC/NPC Talking -- Common -- Thoughts

[Rosela]

Rosela smiled politely at Grace’s pun, unsure of the appropriate amount to laugh. Had it been intentional? It wasn’t often that she came across moments where her Common failed her, but instances like this were one. She was much more adept at plays on words in Arumenic, where subtleties were so much more common, but in the Common language, she suspected it would be many years before she was able to fully grasp its depth.

Folding all six hands in front of her so they would be less distracting, she shrugged lightly and continued to smile. ”People always say that, but I suppose I’ve just gotten used to them.” It was her standard response, as the number of inquiries she received necessitated it. The second question required a tightening hold on her professional mask, and her smile grew toothy in her attempt to stay pleasant. ”No,” she said a bit firmer than she’d intended. ”No experiments. I am Eypharian. My race all have many arms.” She could wax poetic on the glory of the Eypharian race, but had a feeling the notions would be lost on the young woman.

It was strange to think that of all the hurdles she’d considered in moving from Ahnatep, she never considered her arms would draw so much attention. Not that she didn’t enjoy the attention – the more eyes on her, the better – but she’d rather it be for the cut of her dress or her pretty face.

As Rosela pulled out a selection of skirts to pick from, Grace had a look Rosela had seen often enough to recognize immediately: overwhelmed. The question now was whether she was the type that needed to simply be told what to wear, or to see less options?

”Why yes, I do make them myself. We recently took on an employee to help with the minor stitching, but all of the designs here are my own.” A glow of pride rose in her chest, as it always did, when she talked of her work. It was difficult, but she attempted to move on from the slobbery dog, the…experiments comment, and focus on making the sale.

[Matthew]

Rosela

Experience Points:

• 1 Drawing OR 1 Art (Fashion Design)

Lores:

• Drawing: Blueprinting Fashion Designs
• Socialization: Gracefully Handling Rude Customers

If you have any questions or concerns relevant to your grade, don't be afraid to send me a private message so that we can work it all out! Please remember to mark your Grading Request as Graded.

A shout-out to Ollic Rimesage, who was kind enough to make this template for me.