let's dress in the pretty things. [Fox!]

[Cy]

[/b] T’ia crooned in her happy sing-song voice, smile shining brilliantly upon her features as she shuffled quickly from the shops in the lower caverns to their barracks. She’d set them off on this day immediately following their breakfast and now the sun was starting to sink slowly from its place high in the sky. Of course, they’d had to break frequently to feed their respective simourv and then to feed themselves once lunch had rolled around, but all in all, the dancer was proud to deem this a truly successful shopping expedition. Especially considering it seemed to be Lea’s first time actually shopping. She’d been alongside the best though, so she’d done well.

With their arms laden with a colorful variety of brand new outfits, the older woman led the way at a brisk pace with her room as the destination and a fabulous makeover as the intention. The gears of her mind were already churning at top-notch speed, thinking of all the things they’d purchased between themselves and putting gorgeous outfits together already. They had skirts and trousers and tunics and blouses and things that sparkled and glimmered and – ooh, the possibilities were endless! She had to keep in mind the details of her companion though. The shape of her eyes and her mouth, the roundness of her face, the curve of her figure. She didn’t want to make L’nan look fat or gaudy, but they definitely needed to do something about the matronly image that the woman put on with such familiarity. She needed some spice to her sugar! Some snap to her snip! Definitely some pizazz to her kerplunk. Long dresses did not belong on pretty women under fifty.

She made her way to her own room without even asking her companion if that’d be suitable. Rationally, it may have been better to go to the tawnypair’s room as it’d perhaps be a bigger space, to accommodate both their antics and the chicks, but T’ia didn’t think about logical things like that. She thought about how her room was her room. Her things were all there, her cosmetics and her jewelry, and Shovaph wasn’t keen on seeing the space that her tawny clutchmate occupied anyways. It surely wasn’t perfect in any sense of the word. Who knew what nasty things lurked in that room? Not Shovaph, and she wasn’t interested in finding out. In fact, all things considered, she was quite ready for this day to end and her bonded’s silliness to be over with. There’d been no end to her disapproval as the dancer squealed and fluttered about the shops, haggling and flirting with the owners, and even occasionally with her friend! It was a horrid display of poor self-control, but T’ia had discarded all of her comments with a dismissive flick of her hand or affectionate reassurances, as if ‘I love you’s were all it’d take to hush her. And the whole while, she’d made a pointed effort to not even have to look at her sister, acknowledging her only when it was polite to do so and no more.

“Leaaa, sweet heart, come on!” She rang with a joyous laugh, turning as she walked to look over her shoulder at her friend, who followed behind with her own bundle of clothes to weigh her down. This spree had seriously diminished their reserve of diasks, but T’ia could be a persuasive wench when it came to shopping and no outfit had not been worth the price set as far as she was concerned. They were all so beautiful! And they’d be beautiful in them. ‘T’ia, a lady does not need so many things to look beautiful. It’s selfish,’ Unable to use her hands to dismiss the label as she gracefully maneuvered to open the door, she merely shot a wave of warm feelings to the little green in order to keep her quiet for some moments longer. The fun was still happening!

Prancing her way into her room, simply expecting her roommate to be outside and pleased to find the other greenpair had met her expectations, she dumped her armload unceremoniously upon her bed. “Go ahead and put the rest there. Take a seat, there’s so much to do!” She twittered, flapping her hand in gesture to the pile she’d created upon the foot of the bed as she moved away to go pluck her jewelry box up from its place, along with the large pouch that contained her cosmetics, and moving over to dump them with equal carelessness upon another spot on the head. Abruptly, she whirled around to face her friend. “What’s your favourite colour?”[/ul][/size]

[Fox]

It had all begun with a simple admiration. The bright clothes, the pretty jewellery, the artfully done make up; they had drawn L’nan’s eye with the eager fascination of a girl who had not dared to try them for herself. Appearances had been very important to her before coming to Eyrie, as it had been imperative that her patients see her as a grown woman and knowledgeable in her own right rather than a greenie still wet behind the ears. Her bright, girlish skirts and colourful tunics would not have cut it for a midwife who had to be trusted to know what to do during a birth. So, the then fifteen-year-old Leannan had gone to the other extreme; exchanging her child’s clothes for dresses and shirts that were conservative, acceptable, and above all boring. She had never really minded the swap until she met T’ia; bright, cheerful T’ia whose clothes mirrored her personality most effectively.

Lea hadn’t thought that her mere expression of admiration and longing over a particularly gorgeous bangle would have led to this. ‘This’ was indeed a shopping spree through Eyrie that resulted in a bemused, incredulous tawnyrider trailing after her fellow winglet with her arms laden with clothes of all different cuts and colours. Throughout the expedition, Lea had followed with increasingly wide eyes as T’ia flitted from store to store, selecting piece after wondrous piece and haggling prices down with all the shrewdness of a woman in her element. The young woman had winced in sympathy with her dwindling purseful of diasks, never heavy in the first place, but couldn’t deny the girlish excitement that welled in her at each purchase. Left to her own devices, Lea would not have chosen half of what T’ia had looked at, but the option was plainly not hers with the greenrider beside her, and she found the different tastes thrilling nonetheless.

Throughout the day, Eoreph had kept pace with her bonded, pleased at the excitement rolling off her L’nan, but nevertheless slightly puzzled as to why Hers and Shovaph’s seemed to deem such outward appearances as so important. She had not said anything; rather, she was simply happy that Lea was happy because there was nothing that she liked better in the world than seeing Hers with a smile on her face. However, the tawny had been rather uncomfortable at the presence of her green sister, who had made her disapproval perfectly plain all day. Eoreph did not really understand it; her polite, if shy, greeting had been met with perfect politeness in return, but the undercurrent of Shovaph’s attention had been laced with something that made the larger tawny want to shrink in her own skin. She didn’t even know what she had done to deserve such a reaction.

As the pair followed the taller woman past L’nan’s own door (she cast a glance at it, eyebrows raised, but dismissed it since T’ia seemed so single-minded in her goal) and into the room that the greenrider shared with another, the young woman said little except to give a light hum in response. She trotted past T’ia to drop the clothes onto the bed, albeit with a little more care, and turned to view the woman fluttering about the room like a large, slightly demented butterfly. Obediently, she sat. ”What exactly is there to do?” Lea asked with an amused raising of her eyebrows. She eyed the makeup pouch with something akin to apprehension, but if she didn’t learn now, when exactly would she? Besides, she had asked for this, kind of. ”And it’s green.” Truthfully, Lea liked a lot of colours; except maybe for the dark ones. She had had her fill of dark blue and black and brown, thank you very much.

[Cy]

[/I][/color] she invited, her voice neither kind nor warm, but it was formal and cordial all the same.

Grasping her jewelry box and cosmetic pouch skillfully in one hand, she waved the other with an excited flap, approaching the bed with a grin as she dropped the items down and glanced down to the other woman. ”So much.” She replied, not really offering much of any details of what exactly there was to do. There was just a lot of it and that was all she figured L’nan needed to know. She liked the idea of getting to surprise the woman with the process of the makeover about to ensue in her honour. Lea would certainly appreciate it too, she was sure.

Moving to the foot of the bed, she twirled around to ask her friend for her favorite colour, hands on her hips as she regarded the dumped pile of fabric and then the seated woman. Raising her brows as her eyes brightened and her smile broadened with the answer, she glanced over to her precious green chick and brought a hand up to tap her index finger knowingly against the side of her nose, pointing to Shovaph next before dropping her hand entirely as she looked back to the pile. ”No.” She’d asked for the woman’s opinion, and yet promptly dismissed it as she reached to snatch up a fabric of bright turquoise. ”This looks good.” Fixing it so that she could hold it out and look it over, she pursed her lips to the side as she considered the dress that she’d randomly selected. The bright blue shade was consistent throughout the garment, streamlined at the waist area and loose at the bottom. The neckline was rounded and not particularly low. Overall, it was a nice piece, but it needed something… “I could tuck up the bottom, make it a really nice drapey blouse thing..” she muttered to herself aloud, envisioning the look that she was going for before looking back to the pile excitedly, freeing up a hand to toss things aside as she searched through. ”That way, you can wear something underneath. Aha!” She exclaimed triumphantly, tugging out a skirt of pale green. ”You get green. Our theme will be ocean.” She stated excitedly, holding both pieces of clothing out in her hands.

Suddenly, her eyes widened as a lightbulb sparked behind her gaze. ”Speakin’ of ocean…” she started, leaning forward so her hands braced against the pile of clothes and she could move in closer to her friend, dark eyes focusing on her face as if she’d be able to see answers there before she’d said a thing of what she’d been reminded of. ”I’ve been hearing some thiiings about you and that doctor maaan.” She cooed, drawling words out occasionally with a song in her tone, smirking playfully before she was straightening back up and tossing that skirt and dress to the other woman. ”Here, put these on.” She ordered without further preamble or even an explanation of how the ocean had reminded her of the tiny rumor she’d heard tumbling through gossip mills.[/ul][/size]

[Fox]

Eoreph, who had followed on the heels of her bonded, nodded politely and somewhat meekly in the direction of the much smaller Shovaph, her large brown eyes averted. Her voice, when she spoke, matched the green manners for manners, but there was a distinct unease to the tawny's demeanour that spoke of how much her haughty green sister had unsettled her. Thank you, Shovaph.[/color] After a brief darting glance about the room, Eoreph chose to settle herself down by the foot of the bed, not three feet away from where L'nan herself sat. There was comfort in proximity, and in this unfamiliar situation with the distinctly uncomfortable presence of Shovaph, the tawny felt like she needed all that she could get. So what that she was only just shy of ten feet from nose to rump and half as tall? Eoreph was shy, almost cripplingly so at times, and the slightest nuance or hint of distaste could prick and sting and make her bleed. What was more, she simply did not understand why Shovaph disliked and disdained her. They were clutchmates, but they had not really interacted much before present. There was no reason for it; or at least, none that Eoreph could think of, and the nagging confusion just made the tawny withdraw further into her shy nature.

Lea rested a hand comfortably on her bonded's head, sending the tawny a wave of encouragement in response to the confusion. She did not bother to speak, but kept the hand buried in Eoreph's soft, mottled brown feathers even as her brow furrowed at T'ia's enigmatic answer to what she had considered a very simple question. It nearly made her wary, this secrecy, but for all that she had only known the other winglet for a few days, Lea rather felt that she could trust the older woman. As such, she gritted her teeth against the anxious remark that bubbled to her lips. She'd let it go for now. But if and when T'ia decided to apply the makeup, L'nan would make sure to be seated somewhere where she could see her own reflection.

Truth to tell, there had been no ulterior motive to the young midwife's choice of the colour green. It had momentarily slipped her mind that the woman she watched flit about the room was a greenrider, but Lea was certainly reminded of the fact when T'ia tapped the side of her nose knowingly and pointed. The young woman followed her gaze and her finger to Shovaph, a little ways away, watching the situation with disapproval coming off her in waves. Slender eyebrows lifted upwards as L'nan's brown gaze returned to the greenrider, but she decided that it didn't matter anyways. Appeasing Shovaph was apparently of so much importance that Lea felt kind of like displeasing her, just a little. As the older woman seemed to set off on a tangent, though, Lea followed her words avidly, brown eyes drinking in the bright blue dress and green skirt. "The colour's gorgeous." She murmured, the thrill in her voice unmistakable. It disappeared a moment later, though, replaced by a sudden flash of self-consciousness, strange in a woman who had formally been so blase. "But maybe I could wear something a bit longer, T'ia?" She asked, helpfully snagging a pair of sapphire blue trousers from the pile. Gorgeous embroideries danced around the hems. "Like this? Because... well, the scarring from the hatching." L'nan let her voice trail off, sure that T'ia would get the point. The scars would be a long time in fading, but they would fade eventually. At the moment, though, they were still vivid reminders of the mauling she had received at the hands of red Teimoph, and basically any kind of clothing that revealed too much in that area was out of the question. Besides, the young woman had too much of an opinion to act the silent doll during an event like this.

Ocean did not remotely begin to tie to that topic. Lea's ever-logical mind saw fit to point that out stubbornly as her smile froze on her face and thought processes seemed to grind to a screeching halt in the face of T'ia's brazen questioning. Almost imperceptibly, brown eyes narrowed in faint suspicion, the clothes she received hanging slack from her grip. Well, if she wanted confirmation to a silly rumour, Lea wasn't about to be the one to give it to her. "Which doctor man?" She asked sweetly- a little too sweetly to be believable- as she shook the blue dress out and held it against her chest. "There were a few very handsome medics in the infirmary, when I was there." The look that she shot T'ia was very, very dry, and an eyebrow crept upwards slowly. L'nan was deliberately misunderstanding the situation; though she was plainly not flustered in the least by the fact that the rumour mills had snatched up their friendship to twist it into something more suited to their interests. [/size]

[Cy]

[/b] She fawned, looking down upon them and stroking her thumbs over the soft green of the skirt she’d chosen at the last minute. It was hardly the pretty shade of Sho’s body, but it was beautiful all the same. And paired with the bold turquoise? Absolutely superb. It felt nice for Lea to see that. However, with the request for something longer, her dark gaze snapped up to the other woman with a surprised lift of her eyebrows as she listened. Studying the trousers and the intricate embroideries so delicately stitched along the hems, she could identify that it was beautiful. And she could acknowledge that Lea’s self-consciousness about the scars she’d gained at the hatching were understandable. But in the end, the suggestion wasn’t one that she had made as she grasped the skirt and dress in one hand before reaching out to take the trousers from the girl with the other. “Come now, sweet, don’t be afraid to show off your battle scars!” She laughed with a broad grin, thrusting the ocean theme at the girl. “At least let us just see you in it.” It didn’t occur to her that perhaps the self-consciousness of those scars would extend to even her own eyes.

With arms folded coyly over her chest now that the clothes were no longer being held in her grasp, she smirked and tilted her head, watching the frozen expression on her friend’s face. She knew dodging when she saw it and she was looking at it right now. However, she decided to humour it for a small while as she brightened up and straightened, uncrossing her arms to gesture. “Oh, I’ve no doubt. I was speaking to one lad just the other day that claims to be a medic. About this tall, short brown hair, the cutest grin, definitely handsome.” She rambled, describing actually no one in particular. A figment of her imagination, though certainly handsome despite that fact anyways. Then her smirk grew knowing as she narrowed her eyes on the other woman, briefly drifting away to sweep her gaze over the dress as the woman held it against her chest. “But the man I’m referring to is so much taller. Broad in the shoulders with dimples in his cheeks. Also bonded to a certain black simourv, I do believe? Surely it must ring a bell, my dear.” She teased, lifting her glittering eyes back up to L’nan’s face with no clue of any lines she might be crossing.[/ul][/size]

[Fox]

Eoreph watched Shovaph's select colours and clothes with a sense almost of awe widening her brown eyes. In her scant few weeks of life, the tawny had never seen so many different shades of blue or green or red, and curiously she stretched out her neck to nudge the pile of fabric crumpled in L'nan's lap. The material was soft, slinky against her beak and feathers, and Eoreph was beginning to see why Hers was looking forward to this. Humans didn't have feathers, but they made up for it threefold with the beautiful clothes they wore; the style and brightness of the garments more than equaling a simourv's colouration. As she chirped curiously at Hers, Lea shot her a small, amused smile that was barely more than a crinkling of her eyes. Playfully, the young woman draped the cerulean dress over her simourv's head, giggling lightly at the resulting squawk. When the tawny emerged from the confines of the dress, she was ruffled and her feathers had fluffed up in surprise. That was not funny, Mine.[/color] She protested mildly, brown eyes slightly reproachful as she observed Lea covering her mouth with a hand to stifle laughter. It was hard to be angry, though, when Hers was having such fun. It had been far too long since L'nan had really let loose to enjoy herself. Since the hatching, the young woman had been somewhat at loose ends when not caring for Eoreph or doing chores; normally, she would have volunteered herself at the infirmary in the capacity as a nurse and general girl Friday, but of late Lea had not allowed herself to venture anywhere near there.

Oblivious to the more serious turn of her tawny's thoughts, the former midwife furrowed her brows in general distaste and her mouth gained a distinctly mulish set. She did not want to display her battle scars. On the contrary; Lea would be extremely happy when the souvenirs from that particular battle faded away into the white scars that they would become. As yet, the injuries were closed, and they no longer even hurt, but the places that had been marked were still evident in the pinkish tissue that wove across her calves, fenced by the tiny pink pinpricks that were a result of the surgical sutures. "I'm not afraid to display them. I feel sorry for the people who would probably lose their appetites at the sight, though." Lea shot back, exaggerating slightly, but not a great deal. The look she shot T'ia was one of distinct reluctance, but it was a mark on her enthusiasm for this whole process that she put up no further protest and seemed resigned to it. Under other circumstances, Lea would have held her ground until long after the cows came home and died of old age. With a sigh, she picked up the dress and skirt before rising to her feet, spinning on her heel to head for the changing screen in a corner. Slipping behind it, Lea made a face at the faint shadow that was T'ia that she could see through the material in a childish display of displeasure, before commencing to slip on the new clothes.

She had a lot of freedom, with her face hidden, to react to T'ia's description then. With her arms raised to slip through the sleeve holes and the blue material covering her face, Lea let her eyebrows come down and her mouth twist into a scowl. Was this what the gossips were saying? Why? When had she and Ri'ley ever given them reason to suspect such an outrageous thing? Granted, there was that whole fiasco at the hatching (and Lea rather grudgingly admitted after a lot of Eoreph's gentle prodding that she had somewhat lost her head) but that was hardly something to base such a rumour on. She hadn't even spoken to him since the hatching, actually, which was a bit of a loss on her part since he had been an intelligent, interesting conversationalist and thus far the only person that she could discuss medical knowledge with other than the medics themselves. He still had her journals, even. "Why, of course it rings a bell, T'ia." The young woman replied, her voice taking on a cheery sing-song tone that wasn't mirrored on her face at all. The force with which she tugged the dress over her head was surprising. "Ri'ley's a very good friend of mine. So what have the gossipmongers sunk their teeth into this time?" So she hadn't spoken to him in a suspiciously long while, despite the fact that she hadn't been going out of her way to avoid him. With twenty-five people living in the same barracks, though, it was almost impossible to not have seen him once in over two weeks. Lea's eyes narrowed. Something wasn't right, and she might have found a reason for the strangeness.

With a final sigh and a straightening of the skirt around her hips, Lea stepped out from behind the screen, hands automatically smoothing down the unfamiliar material. She judiciously avoided shooting self-conscious glances at her legs and raised her eyes to meet T'ia's with measured self-control. A smile still slipped onto her face, though, as the young woman couldn't resist executing a small twirl, making the skirt flare up around her. It was exhilarating, even if the length of the skirt left something to be desired. "How does it look?" She asked, spreading her hands out for T'ia to look and comment and make adjustments to the style as she had said she would. Lea was not the master here, and she trusted T'ia's sense of fashion if nothing else.[/size]

[Cy]

[/b] She teased with narrowed eyes and a smirk, calling the woman out on her exaggerations. “I doubt your scars are all that and I think you are scared.” A challenge tipped her chin up as she raised her eyebrows and her wicked smirk only grew that much more blatant. Triumph lifted her up as her friend accepted the outfit and marched off towards the changing screen, prompting her to clap her hands and squeal in delight, bouncing on her toes. The resulting clatter of her bangles and jewels only echoed her small victory. Once the midwife was successfully hidden behind the screen, the dancer twirled back around towards the bed as she tossed the trousers over the pile of fabric collected carelessly there. Crossing an arm over her stomach and tapping a fingernail against her bottom lip in thought, she considered all the things she could do to make the item that much more appealing.

Once more, laughter fell from her lips as she rolled her eyes back towards the changing screen, unabashedly looking over the faint silhouette that L’nan displayed from behind its shield before she was coming around the bed to stoop and draw another box out from underneath it. “Oh, Riiii’ley is his name? That’s riiiight…” She returned with whimsical nonchalance, in no hurry at all to get this behind them. She was quite enjoying herself! “We gossipmongers have sunk our teeth into the delicious notion that there’s a romance brewing between the two of you.” As she spoke, teasing the woman with emphasis and enjoyment, her fingers delicately worked the clasps of the box to unfold the top and pull out a small red pincushion littered with an assortment of needles for holding fabric in place and for sewing. With a spool of thread in her other hand, she stood and nudged the box back under her bed with her foot. “That is, if there isn’t one already there, which I wouldn’t blame you for if there is. He does seem rather handsome the more you look at him.” Her words were blunt and unashamed as she thought of the man that shared their lessons, cleaning a spot for herself at the corner of the bed so she could sit, just in time for her friend to step from around the screen she’d been hiding behind.

She smiled with friendly adoration and pleasure as she looked the other woman over, taking in the way the fabric hugged curves that otherwise were buried away. A delightful giggle bubbled from her throat as the conservative midwife twirled like a child to make her skirt flare and the twenty-five year old dancer dropped her pincushion and thread so she could applaud the antic with her own childish nature. “It’s early yet, come here.” She directed with a gesture of her hand, encouraging the woman over. She did look beautiful in the colors, the brightness of them drawing out naturally dark features and lighting them up. Of course, she was so focused on the outfit that she didn’t even bother checking out the battle scars that had worried Lea so, but that was no matter and was perhaps for the best as she looked down into her lap to begin squeezing a slip of thread through the tiny hole of a sewing needle.[/ul][/size]

[Fox]

L’nan’s thrill at this whole endeavour was slightly dampened by the thought of people gossiping behind her back. Or, well, perhaps ‘slightly’ was an understatement. The midwife was a private person; she didn’t like people poking their overly long noses into places that they didn’t belong, and now that this rumour had been brought to her attention, Lea would likely end up second-guessing every single stray glance that was sent her way. Who knew how many people had heard of this rumour by now? Surely there must be a good grounding, or T’ia would not have brought it up. She refused to consider the idea that the rumour had basis in truth, because it was not possible. Ri’ley was a friend. A good friend, if somewhat absent at the moment, and just a friend. Nothing more. ”There isn’t.” She replied shortly, shooting the older woman a sharp look. T’ia seemed to be enjoying this far too much for Lea’s comfort. For a brief moment, she held on to her bubbling outrage at whichever person had started the rumour, before she deflated suddenly, like a balloon that had just been pricked. A sigh made its way past her lips. ”He really is just a friend, T’ia. There’s no time for anything like that anyway.” With a shrug and a roll of her eyes, Lea moved over to the older woman to stand in front of her, feeling very much like a child about to be made presentable. In a way she was, she supposed.

Curiously, Eoreph tilted her head to one side to better observe the objects that Shovaph’s held in her lap. She intended to alter the clothes? Why? They fit Hers well enough already. Where another simourv might not have hesitated to pose those questions, the tawny was shy. She had not yet spoken to T’ia directly, and truthfully had done so with less than a handful of the other winglets since the hatching. Her L’nan usually did the talking for the both of them, so instead of voicing her curiosity aloud, Eoreph sent a questioning nudge to Lea, burgundy brown eyes still fixed on the greenrider. As expected, the midwife obliged. She was used to the tanwy’s wordless communication by now, and had even fallen into the pattern of it herself.

”What are you going to do with this?” She asked T’ia, plucking lightly at the dress and fixing the older woman with a curious brown gaze, unconsciously mirroring Eoreph’s own look. Lea didn’t really give T’ia time to answer, though, before she was replying to her own question with the ideas T’ia had mentioned earlier. ”You said you were going to tuck it up and make it into a drapey… blouse thing?” The young woman gathered a handful of the material, raising the hem slightly from where it hung almost to her knees before giving way to the skirt. Well, the dress could certainly do with being taken up a bit, if it was going to be turned into a blouse. If T’ia could do that then honestly Lea would take her hat off to her (figuratively speaking, of course) because that would require quite the hand with a needle. The tawnyrider could mend and hem clothes with the best of them, but more advanced tailoring required a patience that she had been loathe to dedicate to such a seemingly useless endeavour. Now, though, there was plenty of time to learn.

[Cy]

[/b] She scolded pleasantly, glancing over the dress as it molded so nicely to her friend’s figure and the gears of her imagination churned quickly over all the inevitable manipulations that could be done in order to better it. “Do you want there to be anything like that?” She prodded without second thought, uncaring of the toes she might step upon regardless of the individual that these particular toes belonged to. She loved L’nan, truly so, but apparently this love did not extend to her toes. It rarely did when it came to her obsessive need to satiate her nosiness.

Raising her eyebrows at the question, she didn’t bother to look back up to the woman until she’d successfully slipped thread through the petite head, slender fingers deftly tying a small knot into the string afterwards to assure that the needle would not fall off. At least, not easily. “I am going to make a drapey blouse thing.” She returned, quite pleased with the whimsical sound of the wording she herself had used only moments before, and soon she dropped the sewing equipment into her lap as she lifted her head to look over what would soon be the victim of her ministrations. Thoughtlessly, she raised her hands to wave one in quick gesture over the round neckline. “This is very simple, which is fine-” She moved her hands down to place them at the midwife’s hips, oblivious to any invasion in personal space. “-and because this is actually a dress and hangs, it keeps things simple here too.” Leaving a hand planted, the other moved down in a sweeping gesture where the hem of the dress flowed into the green of the skirt. “So it makes it all heavy at the bottom, and that won’t do. You’ll look like some kind of upside down muffin. It should be distributed evenly throughout the outfit.”

With this explanation whipped out, she turned her attentions finally to the task at hand, confidently tucking up the fabric, occasionally reaching down swiftly to tug pins from the cushion in order to stab them in and hold her amendments in place. “We’re only gunna do it on one side though, I think. It’ll create this real asymmetrical look and those are always fun. Plus, it’ll let the undraped side continue to show off your beautiful figure.” She explained with a light giggle underneath her words, continuing her fluid motions as she tucked and then pinned, creating a basic illusion of drapery along the woman’s side. The sloppy edges of her work would ideally be smoothed out by the time she was finished.[/ul][/size]

[Fox]

As T’ia gestured her closer, Lea rolled her eyes skywards. There was really no other response for the greenrider’s casual statement except sarcasm. ”Yes, well, not everyone’s you, T’ia.” She watched with distracted interest as hands flew and pins got stuck into the dress-blouse thing, giving it more style and more shape as the seconds flew by. Oh, it was fascinating, watching the transformation. Now L’nan only wished that there was a mirror to watch this in, as there was only so much of a view that she was getting as the dressing mannequin herself. ”Maybe. “ Was the only answer she gave to the older woman’s second question, and her voice was distinctly distracted. Yes, a little romance would perhaps be fun. But not now. Not when she had a young simourv to take care of, when almost every day there were lessons and lectures and chores. It would be a distraction. And the winglets could ill afford to be distracted during this period in their simourvs’ lives. They would be fighters some day, and they needed all the time in the world to prepare and then some.

The tawnyrider listened attentively to T’ia’s breakdown of what she would be doing, and couldn’t quite help the laugh that bubbled through at her comparison to an upside down muffin. She had no problems with the proximity; rather, Lea was reminded rather amusingly of the fittings she had undergone as a child when her mother had made her clothes. When she was small, it had been torture to stand there while Robyn pricked and poked and pinned, so much so that she had been out of the door like a rocket the minute that she was released. It seemed so far away now. ”It sounds wonderful.” She offered with a fond smile, intrigued by the idea. ”Can’t wait to see it happen.” The young woman didn’t quite trust herself to offer much of an opinion on fashion or style, as even she would admit that her sense of style was still stuck somewhere back on the long dresses. Which were useful but certainly not what one would call stylish. There was no doubting, though, that nothing could quite relinquish the former midwife from her tendency towards a more conservative style of clothing.

As her mind began to wander briefly, lulled by the familiar sensation of pins driving into cloth, L’nan wondered where the greenrider had possibly learned to sew. In fact, she didn’t know much about T’ia at all, beyond the basics. ”Where did you learn to sew?” She asked curiously, tilting her head at the older woman in a manner much reminiscent to Eoreph when she was confused. Unwittingly, the tawnypair had begun to pick up little habits from one another; a result of the close proximity and generally infatuated manner.

[Cy]

[/b] She returned quickly, offering a wink and another chuckle before she returned her eyes to the work at hand, her movements resuming their familiar speed and grace. As the midwife finally responded to her second question, she offered a thoughtful hum, her full lips quirked into a mischievous smile and her eyebrows raising, setting up a few more pins before she tilted her head. “Maaaybe, huh?” She drawled, making it clear that she would not easily allow L’nan to escape this topic. Romance and passion and beautiful men – it was too splendid of a topic and Lea was far too sheltered. Quickly, she strayed from her work to glance up to her friend. “So, what would your ideal man be like?” She questioned boldly, returning her attentions to pinning and shaping, schemes already forming in her tricky brain.

Underneath the praise, the former dancer brightened considerably, full of wide grins and pride. She lived for compliments. Approval was her favourite poison. Her decisions were made with more confidence as she continued to shape the dress into an asymmetrical blouse, pinning and unpinning and re-pinning, occasionally tapping a finger against her bottom lip in consideration as she looked over her work. Eventually, she found herself satisfied with the outline of what she’d created and she finally dared to pick up the needle she’d prepared ahead of time. Shifting closer to the edge of her bed, her attentions launched to focus on each and every detail with care and precision. For once, a flighty creature seemed grounded and she began to sew.

A smile pulled kindly across her lips, breaking the expression of stern concentration that had been weighing down features that were more accustomed to carefree happiness, though her slender fingers still worked with experience and familiarity as she sewed and removed pins. “From my mother, actually.” She confided with a reminiscent whisper, her tone fond despite the emotional distance between her and the subject she spoke of. “She had this real proper and strict idea of what a woman should be like, very old-fashioned. According to Aralia, just another housewife in Chydyn, every woman should know how to sew.” She explained, a smile continuing to tug brilliantly at the corner of her mouth and a chuckle punctuated the remarks.[/ul][/size]