Welcome to Gaia! ::

There was a cheery ring as the bell on the door announced the arrival of another visitor, but the look on the face of the girl who entered was anything but pleasant. Emotionless, maybe. Cold and discerning? Without a doubt. Her dark purple eyes swept the shelves and trinkets and landed upon Kashmira.

She was a bit older than Kashmira, but not by much, and dressed in a manner most befitting a doll of porcelain perfection. She had every detail you would expect, from a ribbon-tied straw sunhat down to white lace gloves and matching socks. Even her hair seemed too perfect to be real, a long and silken pink than fell straight from her head with delicate strands just sweeping her lacy shoulders. Kashmira might have recognized this girl from the Liberty Center except for the long, pink hair, because at school Ylaine was usually blonde, raven-haired, or brunette. She looked at Kashmira expectantly.

Ylaine balked a moment. The other girl seemed much too young to be a shopkeep. It was a hypocritical thought given how Ylaine expected to be treated as an adult despite her seeming age, but hypocrisy did not bother her. It existed for a reason. "Yes," she said to Kashmira, "I require a gift. For a friend." This was the sum total of her mission for the day. In case it was helpful, she also added, "It is his birthday tomorrow."

If Sam had a sweet tooth, which Ylaine doubted, she would not have bought him candy. She needed something that would endure as a symbol of her affection for Sam, since she never did or said anything to him that expressed such sentiment. That way, she would never, ever have to do or say anything nice to him and could keep on treating him like crap all the time. The fact that she thought to buy him a birthday present would justify it completely.

Ylaine hummed slightly. Jewelry had permanence, but unless it was a particularly expensive wristwatch, seemed too romantic. "Is the name of the store not 'Lucky Charm?'" Truth in advertising, she mused, was difficult to find. If it had been up to her, everything would be named exactly as it was. The Italian restaurant at the corner would be called 'A Mildly Disappointing Way To Spend An Evening Where The Chef Uses Too Much Garlic.'

That seemed rather too involved, and too easy to "break" the charm, so Ylaine hummed noncommittally. She needed something a little less personalized. Probably this salesgirl thought it was some sort of love present. (Idly, Ylaine wondered when Miguel's birthday was, and immediately the date jumped into her mind. Next month, and she would get him something as thoughtful as it was expensive. No, no, that would be too desperate. She would ignore his birthday completely.) Thinking of the decor in Sam's room, Ylaine asked, "Do you have anything sad?"

"Sad as in pathetic," clarified Ylaine, looking up in thought. "Perhaps something old, or unwanted." She ran her finger across the countertop. "Something no one particularly wants to buy." That summed up her best friend quite nicely.

"I'll thank you not to judge my friend's taste," said Ylaine coolly, eyes narrowing even as she marveled at her own loyalty to the poor sod. It was Sam, for goodness sakes. Sam, who never would have been adopted from the pound if he were a dog, who burnt coffee and could do nothing right and was never any fun to have around, who believed in superstitions and curses and thought that he was under one. An idiot, a fool, and a sucker, but he was Ylaine's fool and she rather thought she ought to be the only one allowed to demean him. "If he chooses to collect such items, that is his choice, and I fully intend to support him in his -- hobby."

Ylaine didn't blink an eye, though there was a large knot of anger building in her stomach. What right had this stranger to judge others' tastes and relationships? She didn't have the first clue about who Sam was, nor did she seem to appreciate the quest of finding the perfect gift for an important friend. "I suppose for that, I am going to require a bicycle." Ylaine turned on her heel and went out the way she had come, bell ringing again behind her. If she could not find some sort of strange, bizarre little good luck charm that Sam would appreciate for its weirdness and quirky charm, she would simply have to forgo the perfect present in favor of something else. There was, after all, a bicycle shop she had passed on the walk over.