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Tweak says, "Long time, brother."

ariadne (labyrinthine) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2011-05-20 14:11:00

Entry tags:

ariadne

Who: Ariadne and Regulus
Where: The art supply shop
When: Backdated to yesterday, after these texts
What: Ariadne attempts to explain the strange and exotic custom known as "prom."
Rating/Status: PG-13 for language, incomplete/closed

After the absolute misery that was Friday the 13th, Ariadne was glad to have a quiet day at the store. Quiet meant incident-free, and gave her time to restock the shelves and reorganize things that had been scattered by browsers. She was sorting the Prismacolors back into their proper slots as she thought about what Regulus had asked. It wasn't like Juno was the type of girl who would expect all the usual prom bullshit - did Colligo even have a limo service? Probably; the city seemed to have whatever people might require. But maybe she had secred dreams of princessy fantasies under the snarky alterna-girl exterior. It didn't seem terribly likely, and the dress Ariadne had helped her buy certainly didn't scream Cinderella.

She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't look up when the bell over the door rang. It took a shadow falling between her and the light to make her break her concentration, and she glanced up with a grin. "Hey, Regulus."

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arrogant_black
2011-05-20 02:22 pm UTC (link)

Juno asked Regulus a lot of strange things, most easily misconstrued as some kind of sexual innuendo, though she'd cut back on those considerably since her angel power days. Most of those things he tried to just roll with, as much as Regulus could roll. Okay, maybe it was more like hitting a brick wall when she asked her oddest things, but nothing before seemed as imposing as this 'Prom'.

There was a week left until this Prom thing, and even though Juno had explained the event in a 'no big deal' manner Regulus got the impression that it was a big deal, otherwise Juno wouldn't be going. And she mentioned something about a dress, which was a big thing for Juno. She didn't often ask Regulus to do things if there wasn't a rhyme or reason to it. Minus the slushies, that seemed fairly unimportant to him.

Ariadne seemed like the best source to go to (really, Sirius wouldn't be any better at this than Regulus, possibly worse as the advice would probably center around sex and alcohol). He found her store easily enough from her directions, though it did take looking around a few shelves to find the woman he'd come to see.

"Hello." He reached out and picked up one of the items she'd just straightened then set it back down deliberately askew, it was his habit to mess up order, but only a little bit.

"So what did you need to tell me in person?"

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labyrinthine
2011-05-20 02:38 pm UTC (link)

Ariadne rolled her eyes and tapped his knuckles lightly with the pencils she was holding before sorting them back into their slots. "It's not that I need to tell you in person in that you're expected to do anything super scary or important. But it can be kind of complicated and I can't be texting all day or my boss will get pissed. C'mon." She led him back to the front of the store, a few colored pencils still in hand, and perched on the stool she kept behind the counter.

"So why don't you tell me everything you know so far and I can fill in the blanks from there?"

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arrogant_black
2011-05-20 03:30 pm UTC (link)

Regulus followed Ariadne to the front, half keeping an eye out for some device or item he could reposition out of place, the pencil whack clearly made no impact on him poor manners. He took the position at the front of the counter, leaning against it casually. The pen taped to a string caught his eye and he picked up, rolling it about between his fingers or twirling it on the counter top.

"Well, she said it's a formal dance for Juniors and Seniors, I can't remember what those are," but he shrugged it off as he was sure that wasn't so important, "and that she mostly wanted an excuse for me to see her in a dress." Which was the big deal, Juno didn't wear dresses, Regulus didn't even know she knew what dresses were.

"I know that has to mean something."

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labyrinthine
2011-05-20 04:08 pm UTC (link)

Jeez, he was as bad as his brother. Was this was Regulus was really like underneath all the rigidity and mental armor? It was kind of amusing when it wasn't completely annoying. But that was an observation she'd keep to herself. She leaned over the counter and started drawing with the pencils she'd brought back on the scratch pad she kept at the till.

"Juniors and seniors are the names for the last two years in high school. It's sort of a leaving thing for the students," she explained, glancing up at him. "And it is usually an excuse for girls to wear pretty dresses and make their boyfriends wear suits. Which isn't an issue for you, obviously. Sometimes there's dinner, and then there's dancing. Some kids rent limousines - a fancy car - for the ride over to the prom. You should probably check with Juno and see if she wants to do that, though." Ariadne tore off the piece of paper and handed Regulus a drawing of a few different flowers in shades of rich blue and purple, with emerald-green leaves. "The one thing you should take care of on your own, though, is the corsage."

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arrogant_black
2011-05-21 01:49 pm UTC (link)

Regulus took the piece of paper with the drawing of the flowers on it and flipped it over. He hastily wrote 'dinner' and 'fancy car - check with Juno' and then, finally, 'corsage'. He smiled as he wrote the last one, as flowers also seemed to be at odds with his perception of Juno.

He flipped the piece of paper over and stared at the picture, "Nice drawing." Taking the picture at face value, he didn't connect that he should stick to this color palette when picking out the flowers.

"Anything else I need to know?"

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labyrinthine
2011-05-21 01:59 pm UTC (link)

Ariadne rolled her eyes and tapped the picture with the end of her pencil. "Just show that to the florist. And go with that when you're picking out your tie, as well. Not that you should wear a purple tie. Though that'd look interesting. Or you could just go with green. I'm sure you have plenty, right?" He was a Slytherin, after all.

She leaned back on the stool and tried to think back to her own prom. It wasn't as if she'd stuck around for the whole thing, and guys had far fewer expected of them - no hair appointments, no fancy dresses, no learning to walk in spiky heels. "Usually there's a photographer if you want some awkward-looking posed photos in front of a really terrible background. And a lot of kids have parties afterwards, but I don't know if Juno has a crowd that would do that. I mean, most of her friends are older, right?" And she definitely wasn't going to mention the part where a lot of people expected to have sex after prom. That wasn't happening. Or if it was it was most emphatically none of her business.

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arrogant_black
2011-05-21 02:59 pm UTC (link)

"Oh," Regulus said in a low voice, the picture made sense now.

"What's wrong with a purple tie?" Purple was a perfectly respectable color in the magical world, he really hadn't caught on to what was considered emasculating colors like pink or purple. He really did only dislike two colors, red and gold, but that really was a given.

He shook his head about a party, Juno hadn't mentioned anything. "I don't think there's a party we're going to afterwards. Should I ask her about that." And really, it was best if Ariadne didn't bring up the social sex expectation after prom, Regulus didn't need anything more to rock his world at the moment.

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labyrinthine
2011-05-21 03:50 pm UTC (link)

"Nothing's wrong with purple." Ariadne shrugged and tossed her hair over her shoulders. "But you don't usually go for bright colors, so I figured that would extend to this. Prove me wrong, whatever." Eames would probably wear purple - he tended to dress rather flamboyantly, much to Arthur's chagrin.

"Then you're probably all set. I think after my prom we all went to a diner for coffee and pie," she said, smiling. "You could always do something like that to surprise her." Better pie than a hideously awkward encounter in a hotel room.

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arrogant_black
2011-05-23 01:09 pm UTC (link)

"Purple doesn't have to be bright," Regulus said, using the end of the pen connected to the string to point at Ariadne. The string waggled back and forth as he moved the pen.

Regulus listened, then nodded and wrote 'plan for pie afterwards - not a diner' on the back of the piece of paper. Unsurprisingly, Regulus had issues with 'diners'. But so far everything seemed simple enough, aside from the limousine, and that was more to do with his shortcomings with muggle vehicles than anything else.

"How does one go about renting a limousine?"

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labyrinthine
2011-05-23 06:35 pm UTC (link)

"Fine, fine, wear purple. Or blue, or green. It's mostly about Juno anyway. Just make her look good and tell her she's pretty." Ariadne gave him a sharp grin. "Which you would do anyway, wouldn't you?" Regulus might not have had a lot of experience with dating, as far as she could tell, but that was pretty basic level stuff.

"Look in the phone book for a limousine service, call them up and ask if they have any cars available for Saturday. But like I said, you should ask Juno about it. Unless you have plans to whisk her away like a princess in a carriage."

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arrogant_black
2011-05-25 06:45 am UTC (link)

“Of course, I’m not an idiot,” Regulus said without looking up from the paper as he added a note about looking in the phone book for limousine services. It was true, Regulus wasn’t the least bit ignorant about dating, his school day antics and conquests rivaled his brothers – the total numbers less only because Regulus had ridiculous and offensive ‘standards’ when it came to who he was willing to touch. A result of being a former purist arsetwit. But like all things about his past he almost never brought up, in fact he’d discussed his past proclivities only once since arriving in the city and that was in an extreme alcohol induced state.

“What I don’t get,” he added for clarification, “are muggle customs, some of them are just down right mental.” He looked up then, but didn’t put the pen down, that he continued to fiddle with. “But, I don’t have much else going for me, and I really rather like Juno liking me. I don’t think I can afford to mess up on the smaller things.”

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labyrinthine
2011-05-25 10:20 am UTC (link)

"Sure you aren't," Ariadne said, her voice warm with unspoken laughter. Sometimes she wondered how she'd ended up as a relationship counselor for these two. She was genuinely fond of them both, though, and if they made each other happy then she'd gladly do her best to shepherd things along.

"No more mental than wizarding customs. Everything's strange if you're not used to it." Besides, it wasn't like English schools had proms either even if they weren't wizarding. And that made her think of Eames as a teenager in a tuxedo, which was a downright hilarious mental image. But she calmed down as Regulus continued speaking. Ariadne reached across the counter to cover his hand lightly with her own, a feather-light touch of comfort. "If she likes you, messing up on the little things isn't going to be a dealbreaker. And she does. A lot. I think it's going to mean something to her just that you're trying."

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