|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun May 22, 2022 12:25 pm
While awakening as a magical girl-boy was certainly both important and genuinely groundbreaking for Reiki, it didn’t mean that the world stopped turning for, well……Reiki. Sooner or later, he was gonna need to figure out the ins and outs of how to distinguish between himself and Murikabushi, and where the lines were or weren’t, and all of that. Fortunately, his experience as Miss Sayuri had prepared him for this; being a magical girl-boy with a secret identity couldn’t be that much different from being a drag queen.
All the same, he could figure it out later—because right now, Reiki had need of some new sparklies in his life. While his M.(adama) Butterfly number had gone off stunningly last Friday night, he still had outfits to finish, and the cute little number he’d seen in the Mirror after passing through it had given him some ideas about where to take those garments. Best place to go look for the right kinds of jewelry to take apart and stitch into something new? Why, it had to be Claire’s. Every drag queen worth her pumps knew that.
So it was that Reiki found himself picking through the racks and baskets. By his standards outside of work, he felt he’d dressed perfectly modestly—he’d put on black tights with his black and pink-plaid jumper instead of thigh-highs—but he knew better than to expect people wouldn’t look at him. Still, he was fully dressed and not flaunting anything too much, so any Karens who didn’t like sharing the store with him could deal with it. Art didn’t care for the opinions of people like that.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 22, 2022 1:30 pm
Other than the money, and the fact that Livie was picking up skills quickly as she started to remember things like how to run a cash register, and how to stock, the best thing about this job was definitely the clothes. There were no boring uniforms here. They were encouraged to rep all the Claire's merchandise they could in their outfits, plus there was an employee discount, and it was easy enough to throw together a casual decora coord. Her bangs were stuffed full of hair clips that were shaped like stars. Her arms were covered in chunky bracelets halfway up to her elbows. It had half the kids who came in looking at her starry-eyed, and saying they wanted to be just like her. Although, that wasn't happening at the moment. The store was pretty quiet, save for a very tall, uh, person, who had just walked in. Given the outfit, now didn't seem like a great time to start assuming things like gender. Livie did stare, but there wasn't any judgment there, just admiration. "Hi, welcome to Claire's," she called out, skipping over from the display that she'd been straightening so that she could do the customer service thing. "Also, just saying, your outfit's adorable."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 23, 2022 10:26 am
“Oh, thank you,” Reiki replied reflexively, before he’d even turned to look at the person who complimented his outfit. His Mom and Obaasan had done their best to teach him how to be polite (even if he didn’t always follow their advice).
Looking away from the rack of beaded necklaces he’d gotten onto, though, he couldn’t help but smile. “Your outfit’s delightful too, by the way. I love how you used your accessories. I mean, I know there’s a prevailing wisdom that less is more, but…sometimes, more is more, and honestly? More people could stand to play with bright, colorful things so freely.”
He hoped his earnest smile helped it come across that he meant all of this genuinely. Unprompted analyses of one’s outfit could come off as shady, but truly, this young lady had a wonderful eye for maximalist accessorization and Reiki loved to see it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 25, 2022 6:28 pm
"Yeah, minimalism is not my favorite," said Livie. There were stronger things she could've said, but her boss over in the back room probably wouldn't have liked it if she'd started loudly talking about a style being boring and dumb in front of a customer. "All those white walls and clean lines and simple outfits just look like they need some decoration, you know?" She could probably get away with saying that. Anyway, she glowed under the compliment, bouncing up onto the balls of her feet with her eyes sparkling. She got enough random comments on her clothes that she was used to them. She could shake off the ones telling her that she looked like a little kid or something, but it was nice when they turned out to be sweet comments, instead. "But yeah, Claire's is the place to be if you're looking to play with bright, colorful things," her smile shifting into one that was more customer service ready. "Are you looking for anything, specifically, today?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 30, 2022 10:07 am
“Minimalism is overrated, honestly,” Reiki agreed brightly, though he tried to keep his voice down. It was a twofold matter of politeness, if you asked him: on one hand, there were other customers in the shop, and still more would come and go eventually, considering the typical weekend traffic at the mall and how many people knew to appreciate what Claire’s had to offer.
On the other hand, though, Reiki had no way of knowing what anyone else’s personal style was or wasn’t, and being made to feel like s**t over your personal style while just trying to shop sounded awful. How cruel would you have to be to do that to anyone? (Well, about as cruel as several people Reiki had known in school, but that was all the more reason for him to avoid making anyone else feel the same as he ever had.)
“As for what I’m looking for…? Well, first—hi, I’m Reiki, and it’s lovely to meet another person with such good taste.” Smiling, he held up his hand and wiggled his fingers to give her a little wave. “But! As for what I came here for—it’s a little bit of shopping around to see what I can find, I guess? But the guiding theme I have in mind is necklaces, or bracelets, or something that I can take apart and stitch or hot glue onto an outfit to give it some extra sparkle and pizazz. Sparkle makes performance outfits look so much cooler under the stage lights, so I never try to skimp on it.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2022 6:38 pm
Okay, it was one thing to have a customer who had kept their great sense of style even once they'd gotten past like, six years old, and who thought minimalism was overrated the same way that she did. It was another thing to find someone with such a great sense of style who came to Claire's looking for DIY materials. This had just gotten like a thousand times better, and Livie's face definitely showed it. "Okay, well, this is totally the right place to find stuff to stick onto other stuff," she said. "We've got so many shiny things here, that's why I love it so much." There was nothing bad about saying things like that, no having to double talk because she was going against company standards. She didn't think the CEO cared if the bracelets got busted up once they left the store as long as the money kept flowing. "Personally, I really like sequins? Sequins make everything better, and if you're gonna be in a spotlight or something? You'll sparkle." Livie spun in a little circle, which was supposed to represent sparkling or something. "And, like, you can get sequins at the craft store and sew them onto things one by one if you've got, like, a million years, but here we've got some purses covered with sequins on them that you could just cut up and sew them into sleeves or whatever." There might be cheaper places to get that fabric, too, but, again, marketing. "Or there's charm bracelets if you want something more unique, we've got a lot of summer designs in right now, like, strawberries, ice cream, mermaids..."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
