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"Oh, darling, no."

That was the entirety of the drawled reply, and Amaris had put on a faux-southern belle accent for it just to specialize in how alarmed she was; her eyebrows drew up, her eyes grew wide, and her mouth drooped into a temporary frown.

"But, you know -- if you're asking for advice, I can totally give you some!" -- and just like that, all the manufactured sorrow was gone, and the girl was beaming brightly -- if a little condescendingly. "So, like -- those are your natural hair and eye colors, right? Work with me here, okay, I'm also assuming the style is your style but the colors don't work. And you're not a makeup type? We have to establish a baseline before a design, y'know?"

With every word said, Amaris stayed smiling, but there was a growing sense of screaming horror behind her eyes. It was like she'd been legitimately paralyzed by Jinxi's feeble attempt. Game over, restart, reboot -- okay. She could do this. She'd had worse fashion projects! (She really, really hadn't!!)

"Don't apologize," was the first thing out of her mouth when Jinxi finished talking, a finger up to her lips to shh the other girl. "Okay. One thing at a time, alright? I need you to take a second, and think about what you wear when you're comfortable and you're not trying to impress anyone. Just basic ideas, okay?" She tried to make her voice soothing to the best of her ability. "A lot of girls don't wear makeup. I do it because I like it, but that has nothing to do with anything. We need to start slow, here -- don't worry, you're not the first girl I've had to introduce to the wonderful world of shopping." She extended her hand to shake, trying to establish an equality of sorts: "Amaris, bee-tee-dubs."

"Oh, sweetheart." Despite her words, there was nothing particularly patronizing in Amaris' tone; instead, she sounded like she was breaking the news to Jinxi that someone had just died of cancer. "Stop apologizing, okay? Now that we're pals, it is my personal responsibility to educate you so you'll be able to make your own decisions one day. If you don't know your own style, just...give me one minute."

She sized up Jinxi, calculating, and then patted the younger girl on the shoulder. "Wait here. I'll be back in five minutes." And she was off in a flash -- and back in maybe three minutes, holding a shopping basket filled with what would make one complete outfit, holding it out like a gift. "Here! Try this on, alright~? If you like it, we can run from there or whatever -- and don't worry about price, Jinxi, it's fine, just -" she folded Jinxi's fingers over the handle, giving her a firm push on the shoulder - "Just...please. Change out of what you're wearing." She looked absolutely desperate. "Please."

"Oh my god," Amaris exclaimed, grinning bright as the sun with her fingers clasped in front of her, "you look so cute! It looks great! And don't worry about price -- it's, like, 80 bucks total, it's on me." That cued a wink, the lights glittering off the colors around her eyes. "I hate to see a pretty girl who doesn't know what she likes, okay? And pro tip: the pricier the stuff is doesn't mean it's nicer." She grimaced. "'Specially if you aren't made out of money. Like, uh, most of us. The floral patterns to your taste?"

"Stop apologizing, Jinxi," Amaris calmly chastised, with a mischievous raise of the eyebrows. "Ok, like...what's important is that you feel comfortable, right? If you're not comfortable with me callin' you pretty -- I can stop." And she could! Her brows drew up in concern. "Seriously, if you don't like it, I can just talk about the 'aesthetic' of the whole thing. But patterns are usually a good bet with noncomplex hairstyles, in my line of thinkin'..." When Jinxi offered her crumpled bills (which took her by surprise, even though they shouldn't have; who came into a store and tried on clothes they couldn't buy?), Amaris stared at them for half a second before taking them tenderly.

"If you're sure, alright? I don't want to just take your money."

"Sure, I get that," Amaris shrugged; she clearly didn't, but she wasn't going to push it. She tried not to be purposefully rude. "So, you change back into your original stuff, I'll go up and get this paid for, and we can go get coffee or something? There's this quaint little place around the corridor, they do flavor shots."