Closed [Red Diamond Fashions] An Act of Desperation (Rinya, Rosela)

[Jorin Ertihan]

Season of Fall, Day 5, 513 AV

Jorin paced outside Red Diamond Fashions, pausing every few chimes to wring his hands. He'd come dressed in his typical "dress uniform", that was to say, silk cape, green fine-wool tunic with matching wool breeches, and a pair of leather gloves, which he'd stuffed into a pocket. Underneath he'd worn just a simple shirt, and his regular boots.

Jorin always felt under-dressed when going to Rosela's. He could feel her gaze judging every single thread in his not-too-impressive wardrobe. Jorin sighed. When was Rinya going to get here?

Jorin honestly felt a little bad, for he had basically all but summoned his bonded Kelvic, going to her after work and asking her to meet him here, though even the fact that she'd agreed to come didn't calm his nerves much. He supposed when she actually got there, it might calm him some, but at the moment Jorin was nothing but nerves.

Krima had been busy that day, and he was not able to locate any other seamstresses for his particular need. The play was to be in a few short days and he was missing costumes. Costumes that, it looked to be, only Rosela could provide.

It wasn't that Jorin had anything specifically against the Eypharian woman it was just that, the last time he'd been there, things had gotten a bit out of hand. And he ended up being blamed for all of it. Well of course he did. Of all the rotten luck.

Jorin glanced worriedly at the sun, then paced some more. Where was Rinya? He really could use her presence right now. Without it, he was a mess of nerves and tension. He missed her scent, the wamth of her hand in his. Her strong presence beside him. It calmed him down like nothing else and he really needed that.

Peering into the store, Jorin could barely make out Rosela's form bustling inside the store. She was behind the counter, straightening out some article or another of clothing, while a customer or two lingered about the store, wandering from dress to shirt to dress. Drawing back, Jorin pursed his lips, then plopped down on the ground outside. He'd wait for Rinya. He couldn't do this alone.

[Rinya]

Day 5, Season Fall, 513 AV

Jorin’s emotions were setting Rinya off in a way she wasn’t used to. While their bond was very open and she was used to feeling even the slightest changes in his emotions, this trip to Rosela’s shop was causing unusual stress on both of them. Rinya found herself unable to eat when she woke this morning, and she was so distracted that even fishing out the bay brought her no luck either. She gave up on the idea of doing anything at all until this visit was over, as Jorin wasn’t likely to settle down until it was. Rinya could only imagine how badly Jorin must be feeling really, since all she got was nerves and how strongly they affected him. He himself was probably a mess.

Pulling on a dress she had actually bought from Rosela herself, Rinya stared at the wound across the back of her forearm. The stitches had finally come out, but the skin was still red in an angry sort of fashion. And the itching of healing skin didn’t help matters much. But she was going to have to get used to the sight one way or another, since this injury was certainly going to leave a decent scar.

Jorin’s impatience was starting to nag on the back of her mind. He probably didn’t even realize it, but he was using the bond to draw her to him. While he had asked her to come with him after her visit to the Warren—a visit she was surprised went well at all— at the time it was a simple question if she would accompany him. This was an invisible pull. A summoning of sorts; and the longer she took to get to him the stronger it got. If she had been bonded to anyone else, Rinya probably would have been angry at the use of the bond. But she knew Jorin well enough by now.

Cocking her head to the side a little, she observed him sitting on the ground outside the shop. The fact he wasn’t inside made her even further confused. He hadn’t explained why he needed her to come with; he had just asked if she would. Rinya had not really thought about a why until now. It would have to be a conversation for later; that was for sure.

Not willing to risk sitting on the ground in her dress, Rinya stepped up next to Jorin, holding her fingers out in front of his face, wiggling them slightly in a gesture to take her hand from her uninjured arm.

”Jorin.” Rinya murmured gently. Greetings were generally not her thing, and with Jorin she knew there wasn’t much point in saying “hello”, he would have been happy to see her regardless of the circumstances.

[Jorin Ertihan]

Season of Fall, Day 5, 513 AV

Jorin could feel Rinya getting closer, and it comforted him in a way he couldn't describe.

"Jorin," she'd murmured, and to him it was the loveliest sound in the world. He took her hand gratefully, and only belatedly noticed the dress she was now sporting.

"Rinya, that outfit," he breathed. It looked stunning on her. It really brought out the gold of her eyes and clung to her body in all the right places. It wasn't extremely formal yet had an elegant look to it. Much as he disliked coming here, Jorin had to hand it to Rosela, the woman knew her clothing.

"You look beautiful," he said finally. It was the truth. To be honest, no matter what Rinya wore, she always looked beautiful in Jorin's eyes, but this was something different. And for a chime, all of Jorin's nervousness was gone.

Then it came back.

"Oh, uh, you're probably wondering why I'm not inside yet," Jorin exclaimed, his face reddening. "Well it's kind of a long story, and I'll certainly tell you after, but let's just say Rosela doesn't really like me. There was a ... misunderstanding, and now I'm apparently not very well-liked," he tried to explain. There were a lot of details he was leaving out. It wasn't to deceive Rinya, not that he would ever want to, it was mainly because the whole event had been so confusing that Jorin simply didn't know where to start with it.

Patting the dust off of his clothes (it was never a good idea to walk into Rosela's establishment dusty), he gave Rinya a game grin. If she was there, everything was going to be alright. He could feel it. "Let's go, Rinya," Jorin offered, giving her hand a little squeeze and indicating the shop door.

[Rinya]

Day 5, Season Fall, 513 AV

Rinya smiled softly as Jorin took her hand without hesitation. And then he was observing at her. Which of course was nothing new, but the sudden shift in his emotions was.

"Rinya, that outfit,"

Blinking a few times, she looked down at the peach dress she donned and tugged at the fabric lightly. He had never spoken to her in this kind of a tone before. She couldn’t place exactly how he sounded, much less the feelings coming from him. He didn’t feel displeased with her appearance… not that she was trying all that much really. It was the first real chance she had to wear the dress, since work was not taking up all her time.

"You look beautiful,"

Rinya felt the tell tale signs of her cheeks flooding with heat. As usual. This phrase wasn’t new. Jorin had called her beautiful on several occasions, but the entire energy of it was a little startling.

”T-Thank you.” She winced at her stuttering. It was one of those things she did when she was nervous herself. And most of the time she never understood why. But while the dress seemed to momentarily distract Jorin, it was just as quickly that his nerves came back. She was glad for the distraction actually.

As Jorin tried to explain the situation—leaving out what she figured to be a great amount of detail—she shook her head slightly. The last time she was here Rosela took care of her with great patience. She couldn’t imagine just what Jorin had gotten himself mixed up in that would give cause for the woman to dislike him. But if nothing else it at least gave her some idea as to why he was so nervous about entering alone. Though really she had no idea how she was to help with this matter at all. Rosela probably didn’t even remember her visit in the middle of summer. In fact, if she remembered correctly Rinya hadn’t even told the woman her name.

But Jorin never asked anything of her, and tended to let her angry temper roll off him with ease. If nothing else she at least owed him for his own patience with her. Smiling a little more brightly, she returned the squeeze to her hand before she pulled him alongside her into the shop. With fall settling into the air slowly; it seemed much cooler than the last time she was here. But the colors and patterns stood out just as brightly. The shop was just as inviting now as it was her last visit. Shifting slightly, she looked up at Jorin and then glanced at Rosela behind the counter.

There really was no way of telling how this was going to turn out.

[Rosela]

It had been a relatively slow day thus far, giving Rosela some time to catch up on her inventory, particularly the men's. As much as she enjoyed the women's side more, men were the majority and so had her constantly replenishing her stores. At the moment, she was preparing for autumn, sewing up long sleeved shirts and the occasional sweater.

At the moment, she was twisting her leather needle in and out of a leather patch on a men's shirt. The dark leather ran in two long panels around the neck and down the front, with two extra patches on the elbows. For extra style, she intended to add large laces as mock stitching around the leather, to give it a more rugged look. The laces wouldn't hold it however; she needed to give it heavy, proper stitching first.

She heard the door open and held off on her greeting for a moment. Bearing down hard on the thick needle, she finally punctured through the back of the leather; one more painstaking stitch done. Looking up, she immediately noticed one of her own designs walking through the door, and she broke into a wide smile. She remembered the brunette too, looking much more feminine this time around, but her name seemed to have escaped her. "Welcome back! I see you like the-" She halted abruptly as soon as she realized who she was with. Surprise passed over her face, then anger, and finally a cool, mildly irritated mask settled in its place.

Oh, the poor girl. No wonder she'd come in completely lost, if this was who she spent her time with.

Leaning back, she regarded him, burying her anger at him for the moment. The nerve, showing back up here. A hand absently picked up one of her pencils and began quietly tapping it on the end of the desk. "Well," she said curtly. "Welcome to Red Diamond Fashions. Come to throw away more of my hard work?" One hand raised to flutter dismissively at the shelves between them.

[Jorin Ertihan]

Season of Fall, Day 5, 513 AV

"Welcome to Red Diamond Fashions. Come to throw away more of my hard work?" Rosela had asked, her face a cool mask of annoyance. Jorin sighed. And this was why he didn't like coming here. It wasn't that he couldn't handle Rosela, it was that the woman had an uncanny ability to simply dismiss him in a way he'd never experienced before. He unconsciously drew Rinya closer, her proximity giving him a wellspring of confidence he didn't have the last time he was here.

"Hello, Rosela," he replied, with a tight smile. He really wanted to shout. He really did. The unfairness of the situation stung him, he could feel his hackles rising as he thought about how he had the ear-chewing of a lifetime from that actress, how he was sure she must have given him permanent hearing loss after screeching in his ear for almost a bell. Then he had to come here, and had Rosela stare at him like he was something crawled out of the gutter.

He'd gone back and forth a total of three times that day, receiving either screeching or cold, angry silence. He didn't know which was worse but what Jorin did know was that by the end of it, both the actress and Rosela had decided that Jorin was at fault. The actress had dismissed him as "useless" which, by that point, he was happy to agree with just to get the petch out of there. When he'd returned a fourth and last time to Rosela, she'd glared daggers so hard at him, Jorin could swear his soul shriveled up and died a bit that day.

Fortunately, Rosela did not seem quite that angry today. Just ... mildly angry. Or perhaps she was a better actress than Jorin thought, in which case he was in big trouble. Jorin cleared his throat.

"The Amphitheater needs three costumes, in the style of early two hundreds Syliras nobility," Jorin announced. It was a very old play, set about three hundred years ago, in what was now Syliras. The story itself wasn't very good in Jorin's opinion, using far too many stock plot twists that were too easy to see through, but that wasn't the purpose of today's visit.

He'd made sure to say that "the Amphitheater" needed it, but the truth was that he needed it. Once again, Jorin had discovered that logistics didn't always solve all problems. While his reorganization of the delivery schedule now ensured that some dresses and costumes would always be available, it also apparently ensured that no specific dress or costume would necessarily be available.

Jorin tried giving Rosela one of his friendly smiles, but it turned out more nervous than friendly. He gave Rinya's hand a quick squeeze, and traced the back of her hand with his thumb. He didn't really need Rinya to say or do anything, just being there made this so much easier. Still, he noticed Rosela's first comment, before she'd apparently noticed him. He'd suspected that Rinya must have bought her dress from Rosela, but this confirmed it.

Jorin wondered briefly if he couldn't use that to make Rosela less confrontational.

[Rinya]

Day 5, Season Fall, 513 AV

Rinya smiled as Rosela started her welcome; however she was surprised at how quickly everything shifted. Jorin drew her closer and Rosela certainly wasn’t happy to see him. And what was worse—the bond certainly didn’t help Rinya figure out just what exactly Jorin was feeling. He had said that Rosela disliked him, however Rinya got the feeling that whatever had passed it most certainly was not going to be easy to clean up. Sighing inwardly, Rinya felt somewhat stuck between the two. At the moment she and Rosela didn’t have any issues, but she certainly wasn’t going to drop Jorin’s hand either. Though oddly enough, he probably wouldn’t blame her if she did.

As Jorin attempted to order dresses for a play, Rinya glanced around the shop. Not much had changed since her last visit actually, though the seasons were just shifting. Decidedly Rinya wondered to herself if she would be able to step up between the two of them in hopes of keeping anything from escalating before it happened. Clearing her throat slightly, Rinya glanced upwards at Jorin before shifting herself to face Rosela.

”Hello Rosela. I love the dress, but while Jorin needs something for work I need another dress for…” Oh she hadn’t thought this through! Rinya wracked her brain over something, anything she could need another dress for. Something that was probably more formal and attractive—something for a festival. Rinya bit her bottom lip, she didn’t know most of the festival names, though she had heard some women talking about a festival coming up…

”Beautyfest. That’s the name of it!” It took Rinya a moment to realize what she had fully done. Beautyfest was not exactly something that interested her. In fact, that would have been a day she would have gladly just remained in her hawk form and fished out the bay all day just to avoid the numerous thick headed women looking for beads just to win the title of “Queen”.

But she already opened her big mouth. Instead of flinching away, Rinya may as well just go with it. Besides, if anyone could make her look good without over doing it, that would be Rosela.

[Rosela]

Rosela's eyes narrowed as Jorin had the audacity to ask for more costumes. With as much work as she'd put into the last one, only to have it insulted and stepped on? "Three costumes. Three?" She repeated testily, as though she hadn't heard him correctly. "Because wasting one wasn't enough? Unless you've manned up and told that tasteless harpy-" The pencil tapping against the desk made a loud 'snap' against the wood of the desk and she forced herself to put it down. In the moment of silence as she worked her jaw in an effort to retain some composure, Rinya spoke.

"Beautyfest?!" Rosela's entire demeanor changed with the word, and she hopped down from her chair excitedly. Trotting over, she put a hand on Rinya's shoulder and gently pulled her away from Jorin, inserting herself between them and putting her back to him. "I'm so happy to hear you're going. Did you hear, every woman who competes gets a prize! I'm hoping for some really lovely jewelry..."

Looking over her shoulder, she twitched back her hair to look at Jorin. "We'll be helping the lady first, if that's okay with you?" The question was challenging, daring him to say no when he'd already had the audacity to walk through her door. It also tacitly gave him her answer, she realized. As much as she despised his spinelessness for bring unable to convince the harpy at the Amphitheatre what real beauty was, business was business and three custom outfits was difficult to turn down.

Returning her attention to Rinya, she steered her towards the dress section, which had been subtly revamped for the autumn season. Colors were more in the red and purple palette, with peaches and tans dominating the pastels. The occasional bright blue accent gave the outfits some brightness, as well as some yellows and dull greens. "So, what were we looking for today? The classic little red dress, or something a little more understated?"

[Jorin Ertihan]

Season of Fall, Day 5, 513 AV

Jorin started a bit, surprise in his eyes and probably floated across the bond as he registered what Rinya had said. Beautyfest? He'd heard of the holiday, of course, but he never really pegged Rinya as the type of woman who'd be interested in a holiday like that. It seemed so... extravagant, and opulent. Rinya was beautiful and kind and sweet, but extravagant and opulent were not words that described her at all.

Jorin looked down at Rinya, eyes questioning as curiosity replaced surprise. Why would she want to go to Beautyfest all of a sudden? This was the first he'd heard her express any interest in it. Shrugging, he decided to just go with it, especially when he saw Rinya go from shocked with herself to resigned to the idea. He supposed she was improvising, and he felt a little proud that she'd be able to think that quickly.

Rosela's words rang through Jorin's head. "Tasteless harpy" indeed, but the actress was second billing in the production, and he could not afford to make her unhappy. Well, unhappier than she normally was. The woman seemingly never smiled except on stage, striding through the Amphitheater with a scowl on her face and finding fault in everything. In other words, a typical prima donna actress. But Jorin was not yet established enough in the Amphitheater to butt heads with her and win. But Rinya's mention of Beautyfest made a remarkable transformation in Rosela.

One moment, she was narrowing her eyes at him, clearly unhappy with his request for three costumes, snapping her pencil in frustration, and the next she transformed, her entire demeanor becoming bright and excited. Huh. Rosela must really love Beautyfest, Jorin decided. Then again, given the woman's nature, he wasn't too surprised.

Jorin sighed when Rosela more or less dismissed him in favor of helping Rinya. If it had been anyone else, he might have fought back. They had come into her shop for his costumes, not for Rinya's Beautyfest dress, after all. But this was Rinya, and so he just nodded curtly. "Of course," he replied, as he raised an eyebrow at Rosela's large selection of dresses, which she steered Rinya toward. Once again he had to hand it to the woman; she certainly knew her clothes.

[Rinya]

Day 5, Season Fall, 513 AV

OOCSorry for the wait on this one.

Rinya did her best not to wince at Rosela’s tone as she spoke to Jorin. A tasteless harpy—there was no telling who that could be. If she had to take a guess it was probably someone Jorin worked with, but it didn’t really matter. The sound of the pencil made her swallow any comment—or question for that matter—back into her throat. She was beginning to see why Jorin was so nervous. Rosela seemed like a force to be reckoned with when she was upset.

Rinya was doing her best not to register Jorin’s surprise. She had enough of her own shock and dealing with his would likely cause her to start stumbling across her words. Somehow she had gone from being the sturdy one for Jorin to lean on straight to her own bundles of nerves. She could feel his eyes on her however and she gritted her teeth in order to keep herself from looking at him. The whole idea could really explode in her face if she let it. There was no telling what kind of festival this was in the first place—it had simply been the first thing to come to mind.

But Rinya must have said the magic words. Rosela seemed much more pleased with this topic than setting up dresses for the Amphitheater. And apparently Rosela had no issues with putting herself between her and Jorin. Rinya reluctantly released Jorin’s hand and let Rosela lead her away from him. ”I’ve only heard about the festival in passing actually. But I’ve been wanting to… introduce myself a little more into the city. Apparently it’s very big among the women.” Rinya shrugged sheepishly. ”I wasn’t even aware that it was a competition.”

In the very least none of that was a lie. She really did want to learn more about the city. After her last shopping experience, Rinya had taken to visiting the Hall of Stones. Though without being able to read, she could only enjoy the visuals. But it had been time worth spent at least. Rinya did her best to ignore the challenge Rosela shot off at Jorin—though she knew well enough that Jorin wasn’t going to argue with her regardless. As she drew closer to the dresses however, she noticed that there had been quite the change to the selection.

”Actually I was looking for something that might match my eyes.” As much as the blue colors called to her, she did still have that blue dress she had bought from Rosela before. But so far she had loved that dress from afar. She wanted to wear it for a special occasion, and that had yet to come about. Her eyes scanned through the dresses, trying to pick out something that appealed to her, but she had a feeling Rosela would find something for her before she could do it for herself.