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 Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2016 7:36 pm
Honestly, Poppy thought it was really too early for Secret Santas (it was the first week of December!!), but. It was an experience she'd never had a chance to participate in - not knowingly, anyways, if Ivy had ever done it it wasn't like Poppy would ever know - and besides, it would be a good chance to try to really branch out and start making friends amongst the students that didn't know who and what she was. She'd been scared of it, up until now, but...the holidays seemed like a topical time for trying. With her holiday form all written up and handed in (and handed out, by this time), a cup of steaming coffee in her hands and about to be consumed, Poppy looked at the mall court with nothing less than legitimate fear. Lovina? She'd -- seen the girl around, she thought, but even with the index card she still had no idea how to begin. Maybe this had all been a mistake. Maybe she needed to -- No. No. She wasn't going to do that. She was going to toughen up, she was going to buy her unseen classmate Lovina Lee a wonderful goddamn gift, and she was going to have a Nice Holiday-Filled Month where she Made Friends.
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Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2016 7:45 am
Lovi often thought that Christmas was a s**t holiday. Everywhere around here, people gravitated toward shiny gifts and new latte flavors and scrambled to give each other gifts - and Lovi herself liked all of these things. She enjoyed having a reason to give someone a gift that didn't make her look like a total creep and didn't carry romantic attachment, and coffee was perpetually great in her mind. No, the commercial nature of Christmas didn't bother her, and she actually cultivated some enjoyment out of decorating parts of the Romano's campus with some Christmas cheer. The problem, however, was nativity scenes. She never witnessed something so eerie in her life. Who in the world wanted to be born outside in the cold on Christmas day? Christians had some weird beliefs.
But, then again, she figured they thought the same of her. And that she was going to hell.
She eyed her Secret Santa card one last time while she headed through the mall. I wonder if Poppy is going to hell, too? She has such a cute name. Poppy Sedgwick. Sometimes I wish I had a name like that… The beaten, coffee-stained, lipstick-smeared paper was quickly shoved into her back pocket. She felt a little awkward trying to read it while holding some unwieldy-looking box and avoid the mall hordes, anyway.
Dressed in a tight, knit sweater and heavy stockings under shorts, Lovi looked only partially segued into the winter months. She shivered for sure, and the cream scarf over the pink sweater helped her neck stay warm, but the snowflake tights under her shorts stil left her partially exposed. She looked like she fell out of a Crystal Academy dorm room, and felt a little ridiculous for it, but when the point was to look and act normal…
She stood next to the food court fountain and cupped her hands around her mouth. "Poppy?" She called into the crowd. "Poppy?" Hopefully someone would come running, or she was going to feel as ridiculous as she looked.
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Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2016 8:13 am
Christianity was kind of weird, Poppy figured, but she herself wasn't especially religious -- the concept of giving gifts was nice enough, and she liked receiving things -- but Desdemona wasn't religious, and if Poppy had ever been, she couldn't remember. Little things like that were starting to bother her more and more, lately, in comparison to all her classmates - they all had full lives, full knowledges, and she had to scatter and search for anything similar.
Being Poppy was suffering. But she really needed to stop feeling sorry for herself.
When her name was called, Poppy perked to attention -- that was Lovina calling her name, right? She could vaguely match that face up in her mind with a name she'd heard during roll call once or twice, or at lunch across the cafeteria -- okay, that was good. Even if there was some ulterior motive behind it, she still hoped to make a friend. "Yes, um - hi!" She bustled over to Lovi, pink-cheeked with her hair messy, in an oversized sweater and cargo pants with holiday-flavored socks to match. (The coffee was still steaming.) "You called...?"
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Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2016 3:40 pm
Poppy, she realized, didn't really look like someone who went to Romano's. While everyone got tired of the 'squared away' appearance requirement, she didn't exactly put a lot of effort into her appearance. At all. In fact, to Lovi, she looked like the epitome of "ten minutes late with Starbucks". As long as Lovi watched her words, they shouldn't have problems.
Unless Poppy decided to stop watching her words.
"Hi!" She greeted the other girl with a grin. Lovi figured that when she wanted to look excited, she was pretty damn good at it. "You know we got each other as Secret Santas this year. Sooooo…" Lovi dismounted from the edge of the fountain. In a single, exaggerated movement, she extended the rectangular gift box toward Poppy with both elbows locked. "Here you go! Hope you like it!" If she didn't, it wasn't like Lovi could return it; 'handmade' didn't come with a gift receipt.
Inside the box was a cream-colored knit infinity scarf, lacking any signs of manufactured goods. The gift sat nestled in tissue paper, and at the bottom of the box laid an index card with instructions on how to wash the product. On the back of the card, different methods of wearing infinity scarves were diagrammed out in a less-than-artistic manner. Bernat Softee Chunky yarn fit her request for soft, and it wasn't too difficult to maintain. Plus, scarves proved fairly easy to knit - even in the infinity style.
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Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2016 5:19 pm
Even if Lovina had some choice words about Poppy's appearance, she really wouldn't have minded hearing them all that much -- words were just words, after all, and most schoolkids didn't know any better than to worry about appearances. Maybe she was a little spoiled by her henshin and its' perfect glamour, but she was perfectly straightened and crisp in uniform -- it was. Just. This wasn't in-uniform, this wasn't even on-campus, she had nothing to worry about except maybe some gossip.
Lovi seemed nice enough.
Poppy fiddled with her fingers for a second, running one hand through her hair, the messenger bag at her side heavy enough to have made audible thumps against her thigh with the earlier movement. When she opened the box, though, her smile lit up her whole face - it was sort of adorable, her excitement. "Oh my gosh, did you make this? I love it, thank you! I've been meaning to get one of these for years, but I've always had something ruin my budget or my time, thank you so much!" There was an awkward second of silence before she hefted the box under one arm, reaching for a tissue-wrapped object -- unwrapped, it'd prove to be a stringed bracelet, segmented elastic divided by sculpted clay beads; each of them delicately and individually textured. It was in cheerful colors - lemonade-yellow, pale pink, a sunset orange, a warm brown - and each bead was a charm in and of itself. A fruit slice, a heart, a seashell, etc. - they were varied, but it was clearly not storebought, not with the slight imperfections. She handed it over awkwardly.
"I, um...I work a lot with polymer clay and stuff, so -- if it's not alright, I promise I won't be mad or anything. I know my craftsmanship isn't super great." (She was too hard on herself. For the scale of the beads and the bracelet overall, it was well-made, even if it wasn't factory.)
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Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2016 7:11 pm
"Of course!" Lovina replied cheerfully, as if the act of giving away her time and effort meant more to her than life itself.
In return, she received a paper-wrapped object that conformed somewhat to her hand. She couldn't guess what it was; it didn't carry a lot of weight, and at a palm size, she guessed it was some kind of a desk ornament. Upon unwrapping, Lovi spotted some of the charms through breaks in the paper. She prepared her best smile. Soon she discarded the tissue paper to the floor and looked upon a handmade charm bracelet, like those pandora commercials made into clay. She didn't need her fake smile this time, she found, because she actually took a liking to it. The colors matched the wardrobe she kept, the charms looked decent, and it carried the handmade vibe that she preferred out of transactions. "Wow, thank you so much! It's adorable!" Immediately she donned the bracelet on her left wrist.
"I totally lucked out!" Lovi maneuvered for a hug. "I just wish Romano's didn't have all those stupid policies about what you can wear with your uniform, ugh! But at least that means it'll be safe from like, getting broken. It's not like I can just go to a store and replace it." Which, she figured, funneled more value into the item.
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Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2016 2:33 pm
"I kind of like the uniform policies," Poppy ventured hesitantly, not denying the hug but not especially responding to it in kind -- she seemed more surprised than anything. For such a touch-focused girl, she really wasn't the type for too much physical contact -- that really just meant stress, in the end, and her life was stressful enough. "They mean I don't have to think too hard about what to wear, or if I'm going to look awful compared to everyone else, since we're all wearing the same outfits...and they're not ugly or anything, too, so that helps. But I used to go to Meadowview, anyways, so...maybe I'm biased." She flushed and looked away.
"I-if it ever gets broken or anything, let me know, okay...? Doing detail work that small is really good practice for me, so I wouldn't be upset."
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Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2016 10:11 am
Lovi paused to listen to what Poppy had to say about the uniforms. In truth, Lovi never put that much thought into them, or even considered that people might actually like having uniforms, so the information presented was news to her. Sure, they might not work for someone like Lovi, but Poppy sounded like she had a hard time deciding what to wear for herself, and the uniforms offered a little standardization to everyone. She sounded kinda down on herself, too. Still, even the uniforms didn't hide natural appearance, so she wondered if Poppy struggled with that. Maybe if Lovi was drunk, she'd ask about it, but she had enough social tact to hold her tongue at the moment.
Maybe someday she should introduce Poppy to the wonders of makeup. If they ended up hanging out at some point, that is.
"Sure, absolutely!" Lovi offered another smile. Poppy's willingness to repair damages meant that Lovi didn't have to be gentle with the thing or feel awkward about any breakages from use. She knew a few other suspect gifters that would play that sort of mind game over her with beads and baubles, and was thankful this wasn't another iteration.
"Hey, since we're here, d'you wanna maybe go shopping for a bit? I've been dying to get some new concealer, and there's a new shop here that totally sells some great stuff for pretty cheap. They even sell some of those bath bombs, too, if you like those? Well, they're not called bath bombs since that's Lush's thing, but they're they do the same thing. If you have to go back, though, that's fine; I just thought I'd offer since we're already here." Lovi shrugged, and gave Poppy a few moments to answer.Daekie if poppy accepts, i figure we can either FTB here (since that's going off-topic from the prompt) and either assume it happens offscreen or we can address it in a separate rp. if she says no, then there's no need for a followup~
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Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2016 1:05 pm
"O-oh, um - " Poppy's surprise was obvious. She hadn't expected anything besides the gift -- Lovina offering to spend time with her, to socialize with her with no strings attached (at least, no visible strings), "yes, I like bath bombs and stuff like that...I don't really buy myself too much stuff, though, but I'd love to walk with you! I just like to look."
She beamed, and for a few minutes everything was right in Poppy's world.Strickenized ftb and offscreen! thank you~
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