[Gabe/Lera] - Let's Go Shopping!

[turnsteptwirl]

Who: Gabe and Lera
When: Tuesday, 8/23
Where: Around Pariskret, shopping~
Before/After: N/A
Warnings: N/A


The Khshathra planned for a masquerade!

Lera could scarcely wait for it. A social outing sounded like the perfect thing after all of the stress going on -- and the typhoon had her worried, unable to help, and desperately needing some sort of distraction -- and it meant not dressing up like a soldier for once. She liked being the Mazda, at least sort of, but the outfits were limited. It was either mail armor and a greatcoat, her uniform and a greatcoat, or her high-necked dress uniform with its gold buttons and epaulets. It all looked faintly masculine and she liked wearing dresses, sometimes.

This was a reason to wear a dress. She couldn't really ask most of her friends to come with her, either; Iravati seemed like the wrong person to ask about fancy dresses, Harriet would need her advice on the matter, Ezra was entirely the wrong person and she wanted to surprise him, and Missie couldn't see the dresses in the first place. Gabe liked fancy clothes and he could give advice!

And she could do the same.

She waited at the palace. She wore plain clothes; Saftan plain clothes, which meant baggy dark-red pants, a light tan top that was snug around the chest and waist, but had flowing sleeves, and a light orange scarf wrapped around her neck. She passed for a regular spellsword today, thanks to the golden eyes, but she had the badge marking her as the Mazda in her purse.

Gabe, on the other hand, would not be so lucky. The Asha's wardrobe didn't exactly consist of less ridiculous-looking robes. They ranged from practical to more formal, and even the practical ones just felt ridiculous or were like tents to Gabe. Reluctantly, he realized he didn't have much choice in the matter and left the World Library in one of the more practical-looking robes, although he still felt as though anything he wore would scream that he was the Asha. Considering what he and Lera were planning on doing today, however, he supposed that didn't matter that much. At least then people would take him and Lera seriously when they went shopping.

It didn't take him long to reach the palace or to find Lera waiting for him, and the second he saw her, he crept up behind her to give her a quick hug. Hopefully, she wouldn't hurt him for it, but to sneak in a hug, he figured it would be worth it in the long run. "Hi, honey~"

Lera never got the sort of paranoia that made her jump when someone touched her. It wasn't the way Ezra could still leap when she hugged him; she yelped with surprise before she turned around and looked at Gabe. She grinned brightly at him and nodded her head eagerly. Cheerfully, even!

"Gabe! Hi!" she said. "Glad to see you out here." He still looked like the Asha, she thought. Perhaps she should use his title -- but that would feel especially weird, because it was Gabe. She rubbed her chin thoughtfully, before she looked around. "You ready for this? I can't wait to get a dress. I want a green one, to match my mask!"

"You already have a mask?" Gabe asked, pouting a little at her. He had been so busy attempting to figure out what was going wrong with his warp mages and trying to figure out how to work with the warhound teeth he still had that he hadn't even thought about trying to find a mask yet, much less anything to wear. "Ugh, I feel so behind, honey, you don't even know."

"One my mother had!" Lera said, with a quick shake of her head and holding her hands up, as if to say 'don't shoot.' She grinned sheepishly, before she looked around for a moment. She spotted a store down the street -- one with fancy men's and women's clothes, which left them a lot more options -- and started walking towards it. She motioned for Gabe to follow. "She bought it back in Russia. It's dark green, with little dragon wings on the sides."

Lera liked green a lot.

Gabe had already spotted the store on the way over, and part of him had hoped they would be going there first. He didn't want to bring it up, but only because he wondered if bringing it up made him a bit too pushy. He couldn't help but grin, however, when Lera started walking in that direction, and he could only assume they were heading to the shop. How could he not be excited?

"That sounds absolutely gorgeous!" Nayan exclaimed, grinning as he hurried after her. "You clearly need a gown to match or compliment the green, so you have to tell me the shade of it and everything. I'm sure we'll find a great one!" It would be infinitely easier this time, too, as they weren't hiding who they were any more, and their titles earned them a little more respect now. "Not that it'll be hard or anything. I mean, you'd probably look amazing in a paper bag."

"It is absolutely gorgeous!" Lera said. She slowed as she walked, before she looked over her shoulder at Gabe. She grinned brightly at him. He always knew the sort of thing to say. She reached her hand into her pocket and pulled her phone out, before she flipped through a couple of photos. She held it up for him to see. It was as she described it, with a dark forest green shade.

"This is the one," she said. "I took a picture of it for just that purpose!" She grinned, before she picked up the pace again. "Did you think about what kind of mask you want, yet?"

Gabe waited patiently as she pulled out her phone, slowing down a bit to match her pace as she flipped through photos. Did that mean she had taken a picture of the mask? He hoped so. Having an actual picture to work from was better than a verbal description any day. As she turned the phone towards him so he could see, his face lit up. An actual picture of an absolutely gorgeous mask, complete with dragon wings, just as Lera had said. He could see now why her mother had bought it. "Oooh, that's beautiful. I'm jealous!"

He picked up his pace to match hers once again, though his face fell a little bit as she asked him about a mask and he shook his head. "No. I've been too busy with Asha stuff." He would have elaborated, but today was most certainly not a day for anything work related. He grinned a little then, lowering his voice almost conspiratorially as he added, "I think Beatrice would try to keep me from the masquerade entirely if she could, but it would be beyond rude for a Saftan guild leader to just not show up to a party thrown by the Sharifa." This was the one time politics worked out in his favor, and Gabe was quite happy to exploit that for all it was worth.

"I know, right?" she asked, though mostly rhetorically. She knew it was beautiful -- it was the entire reason that she had taken it. Maybe not the entire reason, because it made her mother happy, but part of the reason. "Oh, yes, I can imagine. It is a night away from the usual stuff that needs doing--I suppose I shouldn't say a night off. We're certainly there in an official capacity. Though the anonymity for most of the night will be quite nice."

She grinned at him, then stopped in front of the door to the shop. She opened it up and held it for him. "Here we go," she said. "No pretending that I'm a princess this time, either."

He paused as Lera opened the door for him, and, laughing, he gave her a little bow in thanks before sweeping inside. "Honey, we won't have to pretend. The Mazda and the Asha are shopping. There's nothing better than that here."

Well, maybe. He wasn't sure how much respect any of the Earth shopkeepers had for the guild leaders.

"Do you think it'd be weird if I actually embraced my heritage a bit for this?" he asked, glancing back at her. "Or would that be too obvious?"

"You have a good point." She grinned back at him, before she stepped in. She fished the small golden badge that marked her status out of her purse -- and hoped that the shopkeepers would recognize it. The Mazda's standard wasn't an uncommon sight in the city, at least.

"Embraced your heritage?" she asked. "How do you mean?"

He could mean drawing upon Chinese-American ancestry (which she certainly approved of, given how she still tried to work some Russian styles into her life) or maybe just something befitting coming from Earth. Both made sense to her.

Out of the corner of his eye, Gabe saw one of the shopkeeper's eyes widen upon seeing the badge Lera flashed at them. Apparently, whoever was on the floor recognized it, and she was already scurrying off into the back, presumably to grab the manager. It was a shame, really. She would have been more than helpful, but a little nervousness at having guild leaders in the store couldn't be helped, he supposed.

"Something kind of Chinese-inspired, maybe," he said as he wandered over to a rack of gowns and began to carefully sort through them. They were beautiful, but these first few were definitely not good enough to go with that mask of Lera's. "As much as I don't like dwelling on my heritage, I do like the style and the brocades." He paused, tentatively pulling a gold dress off the rack to study it for a moment or two before shaking his head and putting it back where it had come from. "My mom had this gorgeous blue and gold qipao that she broke out whenever they had a gala at the museum she worked at. I loved that thing."

He paused, glancing over his shoulder to wink at Lera. "I don't have the figure for it, of course, but I would have loved to put that thing on."

"I think you should!" Lera said. "It's a fantastic style, really. Though I'm inclined to agree, you don't quite have the figure for a qipao."

She grinned at him, before she walked to the rack next to him and flipped through a few of the dresses. None that quite went with the mask, she thought. "I should probably do a green dress with it," she said. "The red hair will be enough of a contrast as-is." She sighed at that. She liked her hair, but sometimes it made matching clothes hard. "Not necessarily the same shade as the mask, though."

She hadn't even looked at the men's side. Did they have Chinese or Chinese-inspired garments? She couldn't be sure. They were certainly popular enough./font>

"Oh, honey, of course not the same shade of green," Gabe said in the sort of tone that indicated she was silly for phrasing it that way in the first place. "If you go with the exact same shade, you'll look completely monochromatic, and who wants that?" He thought that had been obvious, but maybe it had been obvious only to him?

He hesitated as he pulled out a one-shoulder green gown, uncertain about it. It was pretty enough, but maybe it wasn't Lera's style and he wasn't entire sure it would work with the mask. Maybe he'd hold off on showing it to her... "You know, sweetie, I forgot to ask. Do you have preferences on straps and necklines or no?"

"Ah, well, not really," Lera said. "I didn't wear enough dresses to ever get a very informed opinion on that. But I don't like poofy shoulders or sleeves." She grinned at that, before she looked down at the dresses. Good to know her instincts were right!

She tilted her head to the side, looking over the one-shoulder affair. "What do you think of that one?" she asked. "The pattern is nice, but I'm not sure about the one shoulder thing." Despite what she just said.

"It's nice," he admitted after a moment, eyeing the dress one more time, "but we're not going for nice. We're going for drop dead gorgeous." Gabe had always been of the opinion that if you were going to dress up, you should dress to kill, after all, and a masquerade was the perfect opportunity to do that. "Besides, you did say you weren't into sleeves. Technically, the shoulder thing counts."

"Good point!" Lera said. She slid the dress back onto the rack. This was why she came with Gabe. He had a good idea for such things. She looked back at him, thoughtfully, and tapped a finger against her cheek. "What do you think I should go with?"

"Strapless, and definitely not a high neckline," he said as he continued to rifle through the rack. The next one was definitely not the right color. The one after it was gorgeously cut, but purple. Definitely not that one.

He glanced over his shoulder, studying Lera for a minute before adding, "Sheath or a-line skirt, and maybe a corset back? Up to you, though. Some strapless dresses need more structure in the bodice, according to my sister, anyway." And his sister knew more about that sort of thing than he would. What little he knew about women's fashion, he had picked up from her.

Come to think of it, he really needed to email her and and let her know he was all right... He frowned and promptly turned back to the racks. Maybe he'd do that later,

"Good idea!" Lera said. She nodded her head and looked at the dresses, frowning for a moment at the purple one. It was almost perfect, except for the color. She rubbed her chin, before she thumbed threw a few more. "Some structure is probably a good idea--ah, they make these things complicated, don't they?"

She looked up at him. "Of course, my uniform is complicated too. Have you seen those coats? All the decorations. I definitely like the dresses more."

Even if they were a sometimes food.

"Oh, I've seen them," Gabe assured her, chuckling as he tentatively tugged another gown off the rack. It was pretty, and the right color, but the skirt was infinitely more poofy than he thought Lera would want. Back onto the rack it went without a single thought. He paused, pulling out another to stare at it with wide eyes. Why were there all these straps on the thing? Why were half of them hanging down over the bodice? Was one of those meant to be an arm hole?

Was this some high fashion gown he just didn't get?

Grinning, he pulled the dress off the rack to show Lera, tapping her on the shoulder so he could be sure she would turn around and see it. "I think this one has your uniform beat for complicated, though. I mean, look at this!"

"Oh my God," Lera swore softly. "Look at it. It has straps just hanging down. And I think that's a half-bow. Can they do that? Is that legal?"

She briefly wondered about the wisdom of insulting a dress shop's wares in front of them. She was the Mazda; her opinion could actually matter for their business. She sighed, before she looked at the dress and fought back a smile. Responsibility, she decided, sucked. "Too bad," she said. "The front would almost be good if it wasn't so complicated. It has a really pretty pattern."

She eyed a few more dresses on the rack, then looked over Gabe's shoulder. A few more were on mannequins in the back. Mannequins still creeped her out.

Gabe chuckled as he slipped the dress back onto the rack. It was a shame, really. It would have been a very nice dress if it wasn't so overly complicated. Still, it was strange that they hadn't found at least one dress in this shop for Lera to try on yet. These weren't bad dresses. It was just that none of them were the one yet.

He sighed, turning back around to look at Lera, only to follow her gaze towards the mannequins. Those weren't too bad. In fact, some of the gowns on them were wonderful. In fact, it was almost as if someone had purposely decked them out in greens just for the two of them. It was definitely lucky, and, at this point, Gabe wasn't about to turn down a gift like that. Curious, he glanced back at her again. "What do you think of the ones on the mannequins, sweetie?"

"Well, the first thing I thought is holy crap, those eyes are creepy!"

The mannequins stared at them with that glassy, detached look that she feared so much. Lera shook her head before she stepped away from the dresses. As Gabe thought, they had not found the one, but she hadn't really stopped to look at the dresses. There were three mannequins; the one on the right had a cream-colored dress that was gorgeous, but poofy and just wrong for her. The middle one had a red one, which was quite gorgeous, but not right. The left one had a strapless green dress, with a pattern down the middle.

Lera's eyes lit up slightly, but she played it cool out of habit. "What do you think?" she asked. "It is rather nice..."

"Sweetie, they're just plastic. They're not going to come to life and bite you." At least he thought mannequins were made of plastic. He really didn't know what they were made of, and he didn't particularly want to pull one apart in an attempt to find out, either.

They were kind of creepy, though.

He opted to focus on the gowns they wore instead, moving carefully from the cream-colored one (gorgeous, but far too poofy for Lera; it would make her look like a cake) to the red (almost perfect, but red and therefore unusable unless Lera wanted to look like she had been wrapped up in a large piece of ribbon left over from a Christmas party) and, finally, to the green. He stopped then, his eyes widening. That one definitely had potential, and, grinning, he turned back to look at her.

How could she sound so indifferent about it, though? That was a gorgeous dress and it was closer to what she was looking for than anything else they had looked at so far in the store. "Well, we can't leave here without you at least trying something on, and if you're going to try anything on, it needs to be that. That dress is gorgeous."

"Two words, Gabe: alchemical constructs." Lera frowned up at the mannequins. She wasn't indifferent! It was just that the dress was being worn by a mannequin, which waited in the wings to awaken and kill them all.

"I think you're right, though. I should try it on!" she said, with more energy. She waved over a clerk, exchanging a few quick words in French. She learned enough French since their last outing to make what she wanted clear. The clerk nodded and took off t the back, to get the dress ready. Lera grinned, before she looked at Gabe. "Well! We should look at the men's side, don't you think? While they're getting that ready."

Gabe had to strongly resist the urge to roll his eyes. These were mannequins, not alchemical constructs. If they were, that would have been another thing entirely, but these were just store mannequins, nondescript forms that gave the clothing they wore more shape than a hanger was capable of. The only time mannequins ever came to life were in science fiction and horror movies, and they were decidedly not in any of those at that moment.

"I thought we were in this store for you," he teased, giving her a little smile. He wouldn't object to trying things on, of course, but he didn't want to waltz into the masquerade in a tuxedo, either. Formal attire for men tended to consist of suit after suit, after all, and those had always struck him as being painfully boring. "Besides, I don't even know what I'd want to wear to this thing. I don't even have a mask, remember?"

"Aw, okay," Lera said. "We can hit one later, maybe, after you have your mask." She shook her head, before she looked back at Gabe, thoughtfully. She could hear the shuffling in the back as they prepared the dress for her try on (and got it off that godforsaken, sure to come to life mannequin). "I can't wait for the masquerade. It'll be nice to be... me for awhile, I guess."

Gabe nodded, smiling a little. It was easier to pick an outfit to match a mask if they had the mask first, after all, and he'd much rather have that set aside before he tried to piece together his own outfit. He was sure there were a few shops down the street they could hit up to find one. He had ideas for both, of course, but he'd rather have something solidified instead of throwing something together at random.

"Oh, definitely. It'll be nice to not have to worry about guild things for a bit." He made a little face, however, as he added, "If anyone tries to bring up guild things while we're there, though, I might just have to freeze them."

Lera grinned and bobbed happily. It completely ruined her attempt to look cool while she made a pun.

"That's cold!"

Gabe frowned as he glanced back over at Lera. "Oh, sweetie, that was terrible."

"You're welcome!" Lera said in a near sing-song.

The clerk came back out and nodded at her, saying something in French, Lera replied, before she looked at Gabe. "Ah, here we go," she said. "One moment!"

She vanished into the changing room. When she came out, she had the dress on; it fit quite well already, though it probably needed to be let out at the bottom, given how it wasn't quite long enough. Lera posed for a moment, before she nodded. The difference was notable; she was wearing something very formal, but her hair wasn't styled and her makeup was light, like it usually was when she was on duty.

She grinned, in a beaming sort of way that said she knew it looked right. "What do you think?"

As Lera disappeared into the back, Gabe wandered over to the other side of the store towards where they kept the men's fashion. Lots of suits, far too many of them for his taste, and none he had any desire to wear. Whatever he opted to wear to the masquerade, it certainly wouldn't be as boring as basic suit. He refused.

At least he had a better idea of what colors he wanted to wear, though.

He returned to the gowns on the other side of the store, preparing to pull a few other dresses in case this one turned out to look absolutely horrible. He didn't think it would, mind, but it never hurt to have options. But then Lera emerged from the changing room, and any thoughts of grabbing any other dresses immediately flew out the window. It looked absolutely stunning on her, although it needed to be let out a bit at the bottom, but any garment could be tailored to fit better.

"Now now, sweetie, tell me what you think first," he said, smiling. As if that didn't make it obvious what he thought about it. "I'm not the one who's going to be wearing it."

There were times where Lera was guilty of understatement. This was one such time.

The way she grinned said everything. She knew this was the one, the fabled perfect dress that actually looked perfect. She felt uncertain about saying so, though, like she might be wrong about this sort of thing. Her mother had always helped her pick dresses before -- and somehow, her taste never matched her mother's. She felt that here, even when her eyes and her instincts told her otherwise.

She still sounded giddy, though, even as she undersold it. "It's pretty amazing."

"'Pretty amazing'?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "That's all that it gets? Really?"

Truthfully, he had been hoping to hear 'I love it' or some variation thereof, not... 'pretty amazing'. Never mind that she was grinning like she had never put on a more perfect dress in her entire life. He really needed to work with her on making sure what came out of her mouth matched what was on her face.

"Because, sweetie, let me tell you something." Gabe shook his head as he moved away from the racks and closer to her, grinning all the while. "You look absolutely stunning in that. We'll do your hair up all pretty, give you a stunning pair of earrings and maybe a necklace" -- he wasn't entirely sure a necklace was necessary with how the gown was cut, but that was entirely up to her -- "and every single man in that room will be coming up and asking you for a dance." He hesitated for a minute before adding, "Well, providing you don't already have a man on your arm all night."

She grinned brightly when he said that. "Really?" she asked, her voice revealing her delight plainly. She nodded cheerfully at Gabe and looked at herself in the mirror again. He was right, of course. She looked back at him. She flushed, slightly, before she nodded her head.'

"I--well, probably not all night, but I think I'll be making guys jealous more than I'll be getting them to dance." She grinned sheepishly. She wasn't sure that she should be sharing details about Ezra -- at least, not until she talked to him about that. "But it sounds like he'll be happy."

At least, a little. Ezra was more of a peanut butter and jelly sandwiches guy, not an hors d'oeuvres guy. She still thought she had a good chance of impressing him.

"The best part is that I can afford it."

There was so much more he actually wanted to do now that she was staring at herself in the mirror. He wanted to play with her hair a little bit to help her find just the right style to go with that dress and the mask. He wanted her to buy the dress so they could hurry off to find accessories. He wanted---

Wait a minute. Did she say "he"?

Gabe paused, repeating what she had said in his mind. Yes, yes, he had most certainly heard her say "he".

"Wait a minute, there's a guy already?" he asked, eyes widening. His surprised expression quickly melted into a pout as he added, "And you didn't tell me?"

She refrained from pouting, even if she felt a little like it.

"Well... it's sort of a secret," Lera said. "That's why. It's not anything personal, but it didn't get to be anything regular until recently, and I didn't want to jinx it. But I'm not sure, ah--well, I'm the Mazda. He might not want people knowing that we're a thing? He should at least have input on that before I discuss it too much."

Because he was the Spenta. She had told a few people, but Harriet was her boss; she had a right to know, even leaving aside that they were sort of maybe best friends. Iravati and Missie also knew, but they were best friends and had a healthy distance. Gabe was another guild leader and wasn't her boss; she owed it to Ezra to at least ask, first, she thought.

There was a part of him that felt a little bit hurt. After all, he had grown incredibly fond of Lera, and if there was someone out there who could potentially shatter her heart into a million pieces if he did something stupid, Gabe wanted to know about that so he could hate the mystery boyfriend like a good friend. However, the more logical part of him understood why she hadn't told him.

He didn't like it, mind, but he understood it.

"Can you at least tell me what he's like without giving me names and personal details if I promise to be good and not say anything to anyone?" That was safe, right? "Or would that be too much?"

"Sure," Lera said, with a faked resigned sigh. Gabe was safe about that much, she could be sure.

"It happened during the war," she said. "We got closer and--you know, one thing led to another? It's sort of hard to describe. It's nice, though, we get along really well." She probably was using some of that understatement there. She rubbed her chin thoughtfully, before she looked back up. "Uh, he's--well, he's down to Earth. And he's funny, kind of sarcastic, and pretty cute."

She didn't want to mention the tattoos. If Ezra and Gabe had ever hung out, Gabe might have seen them. A short-sleeved shirt was all it took to initiate disaster!

"Is he from Earth like us or is he native?" he asked curiously. Not that it mattered in the long run, of course. The way he saw it, if Lera was happy, it didn't matter where her mystery man was from. She certainly seemed to like him, and, from her account, he liked her. That was good enough for him. "I mean, either way, with you in this dress, once you get him at the masquerade, he's not going to want to take his eyes off of you. If he's a native and you wanted to make a really good impression, though, we might want to go with Zenderael-style accessories."

"He's from Earth, so..." Actually, Lera thought, it was more complicated than that; they were guild leaders, people who were from Earth but had to be from Zenderael in a way. Still, at times, Ezra was a way to remind herself that she was from Earth. She liked to think it went both ways. "I'll take that look from him."

"In that case, we get to choose whatever looks best." He gave Lera a sagely nod and a quick hug before pulling away to study the dress again. "We'll need to let it out a bit at the bottom, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem." Gabe paused, glancing back at Lera as he added, "Well, if you get it, of course."

"Oh, um..."

Lera looked down at herself. This was the one. She knew that for sure, now. Maybe that understatement and hedging left Gabe uncertain, but the way she looked back up and grinned, it couldn't have been hard to guess what he would say. "I'm definitely getting this dress. I better let them know."

Lera, Gabe was noticing, had a tendency to undersell things. Why that was, he didn't know, but it was something he was most certainly going to have to try to train her out of. After all, it had left him doubting that she even wanted the dress at all. She would have been silly if she said otherwise, of course, and Gabe would have fought for that dress, because Lera looked absolutely amazing in it. Fortunately, she was getting it, so she had more sense than he thought.

Grinning, he bounced towards her and gave her a hug. "I knew it! This is the best dress." The best one. Lera would absolutely floor her boyfriend in it, he was sure of it. "You'll just have to tell me how he reacts when he sees you in it."

Lera beamed and hugged him back. It was easier to get excited now, at least. She nodded cheerfully, before she took a step back just to look at Gabe better. "Yeah!" she said. "Don't worry, I will. Thanks, Gabe. This is just perfect."

She looked down at herself again. It was just right. She looked back up and grinned brightly.