Welcome to Gaia! ::

Well, this definitely was not a place where she'd think she'd find herself. In fact, the atmosphere of such a place made her feel unusually nervous, unusually awkward. Maybe it was because she'd never really acted like much of the stereotypical girl that enjoyed spending her time like this. She grabbed at a coat sleeve absently, near the entrance of the department store, raising it outward from where it hung in an attempt to make it look like she really was browsing and not just pretended to be doing so. She lowered it slowly, unsure of what to do next, when a lady jostled around her to get past, three large bags in tow. Nina watched as the woman's strawberry red hair bobbed from behind, unphased by the occurrence. But of course, she acknowledged with a mental sigh, it's the crowds I hate.

It didn't help that nothing looked like it would even fit her. She was careful to do all the hand movements with her left, to cause the least amount of damage to the merchandise as possible. She frowned at the sleeves as she pulled one by one out, all for such twig-like arms. "Ridiculous," she grumbled, moving on toward the pants with a sigh. All the same, all the same.

How was Ephy really expecting her to get something in a clothing store, honestly? All she'd ever been able to wear in her life were sleeveless tops, skirts, dresses... She couldn't very well wear what she wanted to try to wear, because none of them ever fit or were too warm to be comfortable.

Ahh, but this frustration was getting her nowhere. Relaxing, she told herself, "If I can't find anything, I'll just make something. Like always." Not that she was really any good at it, always coming out like patchwork, but it was better than nothing.

If Nina hadn't been paying attention to her surroundings as closely as she was at that time, she probably would have been made into an even more tense bundle of nerves at the sudden emergence of an almost hyperactive voice. However, since the girl didn't want to be shoved aside again, as she had been just moments before, she saw the bubblegum frame of hair coming. Not that she really expected the other preteen to speak with her right off the bat, preoccupying her attention by meddling with the random articles of clothing on the rack in front of her as she decided on a course of action.

Despite the cautionary attention she was giving to the world, she still managed to slip a tiny jump in when Phoebe's voice appeared. Trying to cover up the action, she tossed a pale smile onto her face in greeting, but the spotlight countered anything vocal that may have sprouted from Nina's throat. Luckily for her, it seemed that her bubbly acquaintance had enough to say to give her a minor grace period, allowing her to gather her wits. Not that she was a very talkative person to begin with, but it was obvious that the feathered girl was only trying to be friendly.

A brief pause at the question arose before Nina was up-to-speed, and she gave a nervous chuckle at the observations that were only moments before running through her own head. Although it was in a different manner, she felt at ease to know that she wasn't the only one to feel annoyed at the lack of selection. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Phoebe; my name's Nina," she decided to introduce first, before replying to the parallel statements. Glancing back toward the rotary hangers, she scrunched her nose in irritation, "Yeah, I noticed. Looks like they only cater to a specific build." She snickered again, though it was sheepish. Honestly, with her own words surfacing, she suddenly felt quite foolish for being here in the first place when the bias in clothing seemed so obvious. "I-I really don't know why I'm here, honestly," she tried to save her previous statement, but in her mind, it didn't work all too well.