|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 9:58 am
"... was highly disturbed." ----------------- Keres stood in front of the mirror of some little boutique shop in the mall, a necklace with its pricetag still attached around her neck and a dark, jade green blouse top held in front of her chest. She moved this way and that, then twisted her torso around to try and view her back. "If Rann cut it up heerree..." she said to herself, but then fell silent when she noticed one of the shop workers glaring at her, having overheard cutting up the shirt. Keres pursed her lips and made a haughty pouty face before lowering the shirt and draping it over one arm. She'd buy it anyways. She then went over to the jewelry rack and took off the necklace, only to replace it with another one. She looked in the little offered mirror on the table and fixed the large, fake purple flower accessory that sat in her hair that she had piled... rather stylishly, actually, atop of her head. "Hmmmm..." she murmured. "Which necklace is better..." Damn she needed an opinion right now.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 10:15 am
Casia walked through the mall, carrying a large bag with her. She was buying things to decorate her new room because Jane had decorated it before she had met the siren and the result was a room that came straight out of Greek mythology. Casia had nothing against mythology or Greeks, but mythology was a hard place to crash in at night. So while she couldn't buy stuff like beds and wallpaper and dressers, she could start off with the small stuff and work her way up. The one good thing about having a new guardian, thought the girl wryly, was that they were ready to spoil you to get into your good graces, and this meant Casia had free rein on this trip as long as Jane didn't come home to find her car being repossessed. So she was going to look for some groovy records after she got the stuff for her room, and then things would be well on the way to being cherry in her new room.
Still, it was hard not to get carried away. These were a lot of groovy things a young girl would want in the mall, and she couldn't help but peer into a little boutique on her way by. She almost dropped her shopping bag, and the next thing she knew she was walking over and waving. "Keres!" she called. "Hey, cool cat!" The slang was about forty years out of date, but the tone was sincere.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 10:48 am
Upon hearing her name, Keres looked up from the little oval mirror and turned her head just in time to see Casia approaching with a wave. "Casia!" she exclaimed urgently, straightening up as she did so. "Thank God you're here -- I need help deciding on stuff!" Her tone was that of one in total desperate need; on the point of exaggeration, maybe.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 12:02 pm
Casia's eyes widened. What could be so urgent at the mall? Picking up the pace, she went to the sphinx to see what the situation could be. "What's up, then?" she asked, looking around for something awful, like Blue Meanies or heavy metal music. She slowed down as she reached Keres. Friend though the girl may be, the snaky tail was something Casia could bring herself to come near, though she had been getting better at it.
Despite the tail though, Casia liked Keres. It was a drag to be adjusting to a new home, and once she and the sphinx had renewed their acquaintance, Casia's first female friend had become someone she could finally just be a girl with. She liked talking to Keres, and though she didn't feel like she could spill her heart out to the girl, feminine company wasn't something the Siren hadn't realized she had needed until she had met someone willing to play along with her.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 1:57 pm
To much of the world's population, Keres's predicament and need for urgent help would be considered as stupid and unimportant, but to the sphinx-girl, it was DIRE.
"FASHION," Keres explained dramatically when Casia was near her. "Specifically necklaces, hair accessories and blouses and tops!" Oh yes, it was totally dire. She picked up three different necklaces off the tablet and held them out to the siren-girl, then held up the jade-green top from earlier in her other hand.
"I have like, five other tops over near the counter, but what necklace and stuff goes best with this one in your opinion. I can't choose!" Her eyes were wide and her eyebrows were high. She was seriously serious -- like.. beyond seriously seriously serious. In fact, her seriousness could have almost been deemed as ridiculousness.
But she was a girl who loved fashion and pretty things, and Keres knew -- or well, hoped -- that Casia could and would understand. She didn't have many girl friends (she actually didn't have any, really), and while it wasn't hard to find girls who liked clothes, it was hard to find girls that liked clothes that Keres could STAND.
Difficult.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 8:25 pm
Casia gave an exaggerated gasp as she heard the dilemma. "Goodness!" she exclaimed, looking at the necklaces and the top. Casia's fashion sense was behind the times, and the only jewelry she wore was the music note Harper had given her so long ago, but her sense of colour was pretty decent thanks to living with Anna. And if Keres wanted her opinion, Keres was going to get it. "Well, the colour is really groovy." Casia said approvingly. "And I think..." She frowned, looking at the necklaces carefully before pointing to one, "That one looks nicest with it." Casia's gaze swept the store for a moment, thinking maybe she, too, could get something for her own wardrobe, but decided against it. She didn't want to spend all of Jane's money because no amount of cute could get her out of that, and furthermore all her current wardrobe was from Anna, retro and comfy, the way she liked it. If she had to patch it up now and then, so be it. She wasn't going to buy new clothes until she grew out of them. "So what else are you buying?" Casia asked curiously. Keres had a groovy sense of style. Casia had never seen someone so good at putting together outfits, a feat which was more impressive when one considered your average sphinx would have considerable difficulty fitting into most dressing rooms, and less impressive when one took into account that Casia had never been clothes shopping with anyone besides Anna before and thus had never actually seen more than two people arrange outfits.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 10:35 pm
Keres held up the chosen necklace at her eyelevel and gave it a stern, analyzing look while she pursed her lips. She tilted her head slightly, then straightened it again. She then thinned and sucked it her lips a little and gave a curt nod. "Yep," she stated, "I agree."
With that, she gave a smile and draped the necklace over the shirt that was once more over one arm. She discarded the other two pieces of jewelry and then turned back to Casia. "Hmm?" she questioned absentmindedly, then realized what she had been asked.
"Oh! Other stuff! Right!" She gave a wide grin and quickly moved around the jewelry table and towards the counter where a small pile of greens, reds, and purples and yellows and blues all sat. Once at their side, she waved for Casia to come over and then held up each blouse and pretty top. Each was fairly different in design and color, but they all shared the one characteristic of being long and not skin tight.
"They don't fit me right now though, but Rann will alter them a little to fit my wings and all that fun stuff," Keres explained as she showed Casia the clothes. "I need to get accessories for them, but I'll do that somewhere else -- oh, is there anything here you want." She gave a sweep of the store with her head to indicate what she meant. Keres wasn't one who often did kind things where she didn't outright benefit in return, but she had her instances and times of real niceness.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 1:25 pm
Casia didn't realize the offer at first. "Oh no, I've already bought a lot..." Her eyes widened. Surely Keres couldn't mean that. "...Oh! No, thanks, but I'm all set for threads right now. Thanks, though!" She was made nervous by offers of charity, but she could appreciate them, and she smiled widely to show Keres that the offer really was appreciated. "I'm actually here at the mall to buy stuff for my room, though." She held up Jane's credit card and the shopping bags. "I'm doing some pretty heavy redecorating and then maybe I'm going to look to see if I can't get my hands on some records around this place." Going over, she went to look at what Keres was buying. "Altering them, huh? Sounds kind of groovy." Casia said admiringly. Neither she nor Jane could sew a stitch. "And the tops are really fab." She looked at all of them, there was no doubt Keres knew her clothing and the Siren wondered what they'd end up looking like. "Keres," she asked curiously, "Are you going to do something with fashion when you grow up?" part of her felt it could be a question that was as stupid as 'Gee, Casia, will you sing when you get older or will you work at a toothbrush making plant instead maybe?' but she didn't want to just assume.
There was something that Casia had to assume though, because it was creeping her out. "And, uh... There's a man who's been giving us a weird look since you started saying the stuff about altering." She looked up at the sales clerk. "He looks kind of like a bogue."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 3:34 pm
Keres smiled when Casia did and then shrugged her shoulders. "Suit yourself," she said, lightly, then grinned again as she shoved her purchase pile in front of the cashier. The salesclerk gave her a look and began to ring up the stuff while Keres turned back to the siren.
"Yeeeaahhhhh,"she drawled in a nonchalant way, "they don't like me very much because of that -- cutting up their crap and all. Oh well." The salesclerk gave her another glare, but just like before, Keres ignored him completely and went on talking.
"But as for doing something with fashion later on: I don't know. ...I don't think so, really, because I like playing piano more and all that. Besides, I can always put together fashion-y things while bein' big on the piano -- lookin' good is in the fine print for that one!" She gave a laugh and handed the clerk money before taking her bag. Her wings gave a flutter and she tilted her head at Casia.
"You said you were redecorating your room? How cool! There's a really nifty little shop on the upper floor that has all this cool decor stuff. We should check it out!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 6:00 pm
Casia had to check herself to stop herself from grinning in front of the glowering clerk. "Gee, imagine that." she said in as flat a tone as she could.
Come to think of it, what with one thing and another, the siren had never heard the sphinx play piano before. "Oh, duh!" Casia said, clapping her hands together. "I forgot, I'm sorry. You know, we should do a duet or something sometime, I bet it'd be a gas." She felt a twinge of curiosity, how good was Keres? Someone as confident as her would have a lot of talent, Casia decided. She had to have.
it was funny that out of all the female friends she could have made in the world, the one she had made first was a girl from Greek myth who was musically talented. Casia appreciated the coincidence, and their commonalities were just another thing that made Casia enjoy Keres' company.
"Oh, really?" the siren asked eagerly. "Groovy, I still need to pick out a clock and stuff. Would you mind? I'd love to have your opinion." She honestly had been surprised at all the little things a room needed. She had never thought about it before, and had never offered to buy things for her own room before. Now that she actually was she found it was hard to imagine the finished room and how everything would look in it, and she needed any help she could get or her room would end up looking like a home decor train wreck.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 6:20 pm
The sphinx's face brightened at the prospect of a duet, or something along the lines of one at least. "Oh totally!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands together and almost dropping her shopping bag. "I've gotten waaay better since the time of the Memorial, and I'm sure your voice is just as great as ever!" Keres gave a quick blink and a chuckle, then immediately kept talking so as to divert from any opportunity where the fact that she had ditched Casia at the Memorial should arise.
"I have a keyboard, and there's an actual piano at Anya's bar -- don't ask why it's there, none of us know," she snorted, dropping her voice a little on the sidenote. She raised her voice's volume a moment later.
"BUT YEAH, lets go look for your bedroom stuff. If you're getting a clock, it better be neat looking." She started to head for the door of the shop. "What's the color scheme in your room?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 7:03 pm
Casia's smile widened. "Groovy! You can pick out a song you can play and maybe after we can sing a duet, too? You have an awesome voice, I bet you'd be good at it."
The siren looked astounded. "You know someone who has a piano bar?" she asked dumbfoundedly. Casia's guardians had been an artist and a mail carrier. There was not much glamour in her young life, and the image of Keres playing a mysterious piano in a smoky bar seemed like something right out of a movie, both wonderful and enviable. "Maybe it was put there by some kind of beat musician who needed the bread to pay his tab." Casia suggested. She had heard of musicians pawning off their instruments, so a pawned off piano was plausible.
"Um... I don't know." Casia admitted. "It's got all this... Greek mural stuff on it right now but I want to paint over it. It's kind of weird to wake up in mythological scenery." Jane had, in her flurry to create a living environment for a siren, conveniently overlooked the fact that the siren was also very much a real girl. Casia was in a home where she had been expected to be a little Ligeia, but since she was actually more like a little flower child, some trains of thought had to be reversed. Jane was trying to get used to it, but sometimes Casia still caught her accidentally quoting the Odyssey. "I didn't really think about the colour I wanted it to be. Maybe light green or some kind of orange or blue. Something soft though, not too dark."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 7:20 pm
Keres let a little blush cross over her cheeks. She had never actually thought of singing before. Granted, she sung in the bathroom and in her room, but that was hardly trying or anything. She opened her mouth to say something, but the comment about the "piano bar" made her laugh loudly inspite of herself.
"Ooohh!" she trilled and mildly cackled as she walked out of the shop and into the main way of the mall. "Piano bar: No. Motorcycle bar with a random piano in back: Yes." She gave a 'hmmm hm hmm mm' in her throat before carrying on. "But I guess it's possible that it had been pawned off or something. Anya said it was there when she bought the place, so yeah."
As they walked past various shops and moved towards the stairs -- elevators creeped Keres out slightly -- the sphinx gave an obvious eyeroll. "Greek murals, huh? Like with the pillars and the oh my god bright blue sky and expansive ocean?" She threw out her arms in a dramatic way to show her point, her bag swaying this way and that from her wrist.
"Anya tried to get me to do that with my room once-upon-a-time, but yeah.. didn't fly. Don't worry though, we'll get cha' somethin' that fits in some way."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 7:50 pm
Casia blinked. There were bars for people who liked motorcycles? She wondered what people did in them. "It must be interesting." she said hopefully. "I bet you get to see a lot of interesting people." She wondered what type of songs motorcyclists requested at a bar, only vaguely aware that bars were also made for drinking. Somehow, she doubted she'd know any music that they did ask for.
The girl nodded glumly. "The island that historians figure the sirens live on and stuff, she got that on there. She thinks it's boss, but its kind of depressing to remember that no matter what you do people are still going to think you like luring sailors to their deaths in your spare time." She didn't know much about sphinxes, but judging by the description of sirens, who were only part bird, a part lion, snake, and bird woman couldn't have many good mythological stereotypes going for her. "I had to let her know that if she didn't change it I was going to sleep in the attic for the rest of my life. I'm thinking of making a nice, groovy sort of room though. Posters on the walls, maybe, and funky pattern sheets. You know, cheerful. Whatever I make it, I'm not going to sleep in a replica of the nifty island of Anthemusa." Casia was a stubborn girl, and it stood to reason. If a siren said she wouldn't do something, one had better be willing to round up wild horses to drag her before one could expect a change of mind.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 3:50 pm
"Yeaaaaahhhhhh...." Keres drawled, giving a funny smile as she glanced up at the ceiling. Anya's bar had some really weird people in it at times indeed.
At Casia's remark about luring sailors to their deaths, the sphinx-girl gave a solemn nod in agreement. "Basically. I'm sure that most people think that I'm going to strangle them or something if they answer me wrong. ...Though," she gave a thoughtful nod of her head, "maybe that's not so bad." She laughed.
"But anyways, back to your room: maybe like.. paisley sheets would look good? That patten usually has some funky colors." Keres took a turn to the right and headed into a rather good-sized store that sat in a some-what hidden corner of the mall.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
