paixaorpg | Throw your soul through every open door

Entry tags:

Throw your soul through every open door

Character(s): Lenne and Megara
Content: Shopping!
Setting: Various shops somewhere in Paixao (I have no idea, specifically DX)
Time: Week 33
Warnings: ~~Gratuitous lesbian sex~~ None, at the moment! ♥

With every day that passed, Paixao started to feel a little more like home again. Usually, this was a comfort to Lenne, but she couldn’t always quell the guilt that would rise up in her, unbidden; the feeling that there was somewhere else she should be, something she needed to accomplish… it was times like that when Lenne found herself shopping. There was nothing quite like retail therapy to soothe the soul.

Shopping hadn’t been easy at first, though, and the locals were much, much less friendly than she remembered. However, she took it upon herself to kill them with kindness, as it were, never retaliating in kind, and after awhile, the employees in the shops she frequented ran out of excuses to harass her, and were faced with little choice but sell her whatever it was she wanted to buy… or at least tolerate her presence.

That day, she was looking for housewares. The décor in her flat was sorely lacking, and she needed some color, some sparkle, and just plain style. She was currently turning over a glass, lavender vase with ribbons of silver glitter. “Hmmm. I dunno, you think it’s too much?” She asks no one in particular, holding it up in the light.

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"You wanna repeat that?" The question was softly spoken, the voice low and sultry, but the edge to the words made it loud as a shout. Some tables down, Megara stood with her hands on her hips, lavender-grey eyes narrowed at the shopkeeper unfortunate enough to be the target of her cold glare.

"...as I said, your kind isn't welcome here." To his credit, the merchant was holding his ground, the only sign of his discomfort being the pallor of his face. Otherwise, his expression was schooled into careful but haughty neutrality. "This city does not want your business."

Not breaking eye-contact, Meg reached down and snapped up the pillow on the table next to her. "Last I checked, my kind was the main source of your income. So you can either take my money or not, but I'm getting this pillow, even if I have to shove it up your --"

Lenne's attention was immediately drawn to the conversation, if it could be called something so cordial. She sighed deeply and narrowed her eyes at the merchant who was being rather too vocal in his prejudices for her liking. She hadn't had any issue there in a while, but that didn't mean she'd let someone else be treated that way. Not happening. She strides over to the two, vase still in hand, and a very determined look on her face. She only stops when she comes right into the merchant's space. There's a rarely seen shadow of malevolence to her smile, but only slight.

"Excuse me, but I couldn't help but overhear the sound of you being so uncharacteristically rude to a patron."

She balances the vase precariously in her hand, showing very little regard for how fragile it is.

"The lady is right, if it were not for our kind, you would have no business at all. So, the way I see it, you have two options: Put your blinders on and let us shop and continue to fund your existence in this place we're trapped... Or you can watch your perfect little world fall apart as we take our business elsewhere." She mock-drops the vase for a moment, but deftly catches it in the other hand, a bright, and for all intents and purposes, sincere smile on her face.

“I know which option I’d prefer, but it’s up to you. Far be it from me to shove you in a box and assume you’re incapable of thinking for yourself.”

This show was very out of the ordinary for Lenne, and in the back of her mind, it worried her a little. But a chord had been struck, and she planned to follow through. It was her nature to defend.

A flash of annoyance flickered in Meg's eyes as Lenne interrupted, but a smirk slowly made its way to her lips as she watched the show. The merchant lost all pretense of cool composure, twitching visibly as he watched the vase with large eyes.

Chuckling, Meg set the pillow down. "She's right. Something so fragile as a business in this city...it wouldn't take much to make it all fall to pieces." As both women stared back at the merchant, he backed up a couple of steps before reaching out and snatching the vase out of Lenne's hands.

"Well," he scoffed, clutching the fragile item close. "If you insist, I suppose I have no choice in the matter."

Lenne was back to her usual self, by all appearances, grinning and cheerful. She couldn't help a veiled smirk and a wink to Meg, though, before following the merchant back in order to pay for that vase. She wasn't leaving the store without it. She had enough shiny to give the clerk the payment he asked for, and did everything she could to expedite the process and not wear-out her welcome any more than she had. She likely wouldn't be back to this shop, though.

She made a beeline back to Meg as soon as the transaction was complete, clutching the vase to herself, a grin on her face that softened to an apologetic smile as she neared the other woman.

"Sorry for barging in back there," Lenne started. "You seemed like you had it under control, but I just couldn't let you have all the fun," she continued, smile widening a bit.

Raising an aristocratic brow at Lenne's change in appearance, Meg simply watched her pay for her item for a moment before turning with a chuckle and heading to the exit. Though the battle had technically been won, the experience had soured her desire to give this shop any of her "money," such as it was. By the time the other woman joined her, Meg was stepping out into the street.

"Don't worry about it," she replied, a faint smirk on her lips. "So are you really that forgiving or do you just enjoy killing with kindness?" She jerked a thumb back at the shop, referring to her politeness to a man Meg felt didn't deserve it.

"Hmm... a little of both," she answered, smirking a little in turn, but the smile was still genuine. "But not quite that forgiving. I won't be going back there," she added, part of her wanting the other woman to know she really was upset about how she was treated, but there really wasn't a way to say so without creating awkwardness. Many people seemed to distrust her immediate camaraderie.

"If the money was anything more than leaves off a tree, I probably wouldn't have bought this," she nods to the vase in her arms. "But something about it, just... well, I wanted it," she laughs, unable to explain what it was that drew her to the item, and feeling a little silly that she felt so strongly about it at all.

"Oh, I'm Lenne, by the way," she offered suddenly. "I think I've seen you here, before, but... I can't remember," each word spoken quieter than before as she grows a little embarrassed at the confession.

"Meaning you've been here before but your memories are a bit fuzzy?" she replied, folding her arms. "I'm Megara, some call me Meg. I think I might have seen you around before, but my memory has a couple holes in it myself." She glanced over to the shop and nodded at the other woman to follow her as she walked down the street. The sooner she put some distance between herself and the shop, the less angry she'd feel.

"You're right on," she agreed at Meg's assessment. "Glad to meet you, Meg. Again, maybe," she added with a light laugh and quickly followed the other woman, understanding the unspoken sentiment. After a moment, she noticed that Meg had not purchased the pillow she'd been holding in the store.

"Hm, looks like I owe you a pillow," she remarked playfully as they headed away from the store.

"Don't worry about it. You saved me from throwing good money after bad," she replied flatly. "Not like I can't find other pillows around here." Meg pursed her lips slightly, glancing at the few blonde-headed passerby. "Or maybe not...this is the fourth shop I've tried to buy something from. Who knew sprucing up a place could be so hard?"

"Hmm... well, if you're up for it, there's another shop near here where I've never had any issue," Lenne offered, motioning languidly to their right. She wasn't sure if there were pillows there, but Lenne really hoped she could help Meg find a more pleasant shopping experience. Living in Paixao was hard enough without having a girl's greatest catharsis (shopping) marred by bubbleheaded bleach-blonde xenophobes.

"You're right, though. It can be really hard to make this place feel like home." She really did mean in the sprucing-up sense, but... from all angles, the statement rang true.

She fell into silence for a brief moment, musing. It seemed like this Lenne was offering friendship, which was frankly a new and slightly terrifying experience for Meg even now. But then, she'd been trying to open herself up some more. Despite all her instincts telling her not to.

"Sure, why not?" she said with a small smile. "Lead the way."

Lenne had a tendency to immediately offer friendship and worry about potential reasons not to later. Life was too short to live behind walls. Ironic.

She grinned and just barely resisted the urge to grab Meg's arm and trot off towards the store. Instead she motioned with her head that they needed to turn and started off toward the shop with a new sense of purpose.

"Okay! This way," she encouraged, and soon enough, they were outside a shop whose advertising boasted a veritable plethora of promises to fill your living space with homey-ness.

"This is it!" She grinned and opened the door, which jingled with a few strands of bells and beads that hung from the doorknob. She motioned inside with half a smirk. "After you, my lady."

Meg smiled, granting Lenne a little self-mocking half bow. "Oh, thanks," she chuckled, moving inside. Lenne's energy and friendliness might have annoyed her at one point but something about the girl was amusing and somewhat captivating. Perhaps a morning of unfriendly faces and cold shoulders opened her up a little more to a smiling face. Or maybe the man she'd let into her defenses was doing a little more than just keeping her warm at night.

Whatever the reason, she was enjoying the company.

"Well, someone needs to be a gentleman around here," Lenne added with a roll of her eyes and a quick grin, and once Meg was inside she followed suit and let the door close behind them with another musical jingle. The store was larger than the front would have it appear, and the clerk in the far back at the register looked up for only a moment before going back to whatever it was that had fascinated her before their arrival.

"Hmm, where to begin..." Lenne mused aloud, moving along to a window display, and reached out to run her fingers along a few wind-chimes hanging from hooks in the ceiling. She smiled approvingly, and added wind chimes to her mental wish-list, even though she couldn't remember even a breeze in Paixao.

"This is nice," she murmured quietly, appreciating the general apathy of the merchant. After a morning of hostility, indifference was like heaven. The shop wasn't as polished or bright as the previous one, but there was a dusty, quiet charm to it. Her musing was interrupted by the light, ethereal sound of chimes and Meg joined Lenne.

"Hm. That's actually pretty nice," she said, arms crossed as she looked up at the wind chimes. "You should get it."

"Hmm, you think so?" Lenne set the vase she'd been carrying since the last shop on the ledge of the display area, and reached up to pluck a set of chimes from their hook, inwardly thrilled at how they all seemed to be in tune with each other. "I think you're right," she agreed with a laugh.

"Well, since I've already found something, it's time we find you a pillow," Lenne offered, jingling the chime playfully as she referred to it. Somehow it just couldn't be annoying to her. It was as if she could hear a melody hiding in all the jumbled notes. And regardless if Meg actually wanted a pillow or not, she was determined that Meg would go home having found something.

Meg poked the chimes as Lenne lifted them to jingle a tune. "That'd be great," she admitted, straightening to smile wryly. "As much as I love sleeping without one." She turned to scan the shop and caught sight of a pile of colorful round shapes further in.

As she got closer to investigate, she arched an eyebrow at the sheer amount of variety in the haphazard collection. Silk and cotton, corduroy and velvet, colors and patterns of every combination. She picked up a pillow the shape of a tiger with a snort of amusement.

Lenne gathered her items and swiftly followed Meg, taking a moment to visually browse through the generous array of plush. She laughed lightly at Meg's first choice, reaching out to stroke the pillow and find that it really was as soft as it appeared. "Well, points for creativity, with that one," she decided aloud.

She had many pillows in her apartment in Paixao, mostly to fill up space and muffle sound, since the walls were pretty bare. She made a mental note to come back and find a few more when she had the arms to carry them.

"Hmm.. seeing anything dream-support worthy?"

"I don't know, see any pillows shaped like rippling pecs?" she replied, tossing the tiger pillow back on to the pile. Bending, she burrowed slightly into the pile to see what might be hidden further under the pile. After a few moments of struggle and wiggling, she popped back out of the pile with a large, fluffy lavender pillow.

"Here we go...just what I need." She tossed it to Lenne. "What do you think?"

"Hmm, no, but if I did, you'd have to pry it out of my hands," she giggled, digging around half-heartedly, herself, while Meg burrowed into the pile of cushions. Her mouth curved into the "Oooo," she voiced when Meg emerged with a lovely lavender pillow.

Lenne caught the pillow deftly and grinned as she gave it an exaggerated hug. "Well, it passes the crushing-hug test," she laughed, the pillow had already reverted back to its cushy self, and tossed it back to Meg.

Meg caught the pillow with a chuckle of amusement, swinging her hip out to prop it up under her arm. "That's good enough for me, then. I'll go see if I can actually buy it...and then I'm thinking lunch. You in?"

The question came so suddenly and naturally that she didn't even catch herself until it was too late. She wasn't really in the habit of making friends, or more accurately, people weren't in the habit of befriending her. But as she turned to hide the sudden glimmer of self-doubt she was sure showed in her eyes, Meg mused that maybe it wouldn't be a disaster. Heading to the counter, she smiled wryly to herself. I really am an idiot. Didn't people always disappoint you in the end?

Lenne grinned and opted to stay behind and continue poking around in the pile of pillows while Meg headed toward the clerk. "You shouldn't have any trouble... if anything, you can probably haggle down the price," she added with a laugh, then perked up when food was mentioned. "I'm all but famished!" she exaggerated with a laugh.

"Did you have somewhere in mind for lunch?" she asked, coming up beside Meg when she appeared to be done with the purchasing process.

[ooc: I am so very made of fail. Sorry for being so damn slow... DX]

[ooc: likewise....DX]

"Uh..." Meg forced herself to focus on Lenne again, a weak smile on her face. "Yeah, there's a cafe I passed on the way here. Come on." She lead the way, reaching up to rub the side of her head for a moment. How was she going to fill the silence? She couldn't very well talk about herself.

"So...Do you...have anyone from your world here?"

Lenne followed along in comfortable state of quiet; at least it was comfortable on her part. Until the question came she hadn't yet had to answer, and she wasn't sure how much information was too much. Well, better to start small, then.

"Well, yes, actually, but... I didn't know them, then," she answered. Vague, but truthful. It wasn't exactly pleasant to explain to anyone that you'd been dead 1000 years before the other people present from your home world lived. He response was accompanied by a smile and a shrug, not altogether dismissing the topic, but hoping it would dissuade Meg from prying too much deeper.

"I'm glad to know the people I've met, though," she added quietly, almost as an apology. "Have you run into any friends here?" she asked after a moment, if for no reason than to continue to fill the suddenly tense quiet.

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Throw your soul through every open door

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