✷ ✷ ✷ ɐılnɾ ✷ ✷ ✷ (hurlyburly) wrote in thedisplaced, @ 2018-02-17 11:52:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log/thread, julia wicker, waverly earp |
Who: Julia and Waverly
What:Shopping and trying on costumes in the most touristy part of Middle Earth
Where: The Gray Haven Port
When: Weekendish?
Rating: A for Adorable
Waverly was having fun. Maybe not the most fun, but it was hard when she couldn’t help but feel the loss of Wynonna and Nicole. She was thankful for Doc’s presence and thankful for the moments in which she was distracted by one thing or another. She had tried her best to be in a great mood all the time, but today had been a little difficult. So she’d decided to venture out. She’d picked a pair of high waisted jeans, a flowy navy colored blouse with a red and white floral pattern, and brown boots. Her hair was braided over her shoulder. She wanted to see if she could figure out which of the portals would take her where she wanted to go and which wouldn’t. Maybe she could just pick one. She was staring at them, trying to figure out where to go. Did she want to see Elves? Dwarves? Hobbits? It was a serious question. She did not want to run into Orcs or anything else on that level. She didn’t want to end up fighting. She just wanted to see something pretty or amazing. She wanted a good distraction from her thoughts because it just seemed like a lot today. She wanted to be upbeat and cheerful instead of mildly morose. “Hey.” Julia’s voice came from behind, quiet and gentle. It had not been her intention to sneak up on Waverly, but her flats also didn’t make a lot of noise. “You headed out?” The portals were handy, actually. So was the new feature on the bracelets to take them back. No waiting on eagles for rescue required. Which was probably good because they seemed highly unreliable from Julia’s vague memories of the books and movies. “The Shire was nice.” The hedgewitch offered Waverly a smile. She seemed sweet, which was why she made it a point to come say hello, despite being reluctant to go out and explore too much. Waverly jumped at the sound of someone’s voice. “Shit.” She pressed her hands over her chest and looked over at Julia. Her expression shifted from startled to something a little less that once she noted who it was that was talking to her. They’d danced at Margo’s birthday party. Waverly still didn’t really know Margo that well, but she was a friend of Eliot’s, so Waverly hadn’t minded showing up at the party. She’d gotten to dance with a few people, which had been nice and definitely distracted her. She still felt mildly embarrassed for so openly discussing the general hotness of the people involved with Doc, but he hadn’t seemed overly bothered by it, so she’d decided not to worry about it too much. “Sorry. Hi.” She looked over at the portals and then back to Julia. “I haven’t been yet. I was thinking about one of the forests. Or maybe Mirkwood or something?” She shrugged slightly. “I was debating one of those costumes with the appearance changes, but also I’m not sure how much I want to be someone else. I guess I’d still be me, just with a few extra things. Like super flowy hair and ears.” She almost wished she could have flipped her hair over her shoulder in that moment. “But then my hair is pretty flowy without being an elf. I could probably manage to rock a beard.” She let out a small laugh at that. “Did you want to come?” At the mention of costumes with appearance changes, Julia had been picturing Waverly as a dwarf. Waverly by herself was pretty cute, but as a hobbit she would have been unbearably adorable. The thought made Julia smile until Waverly mentioned being an elf and her brain for a second or two went to a surprising place she was not ready to examine yet. “A beard?” Thankful for the change in mental image, Julia smiled. “Don’t they have all the braids? It just sounds like more work.” She shouldn’t have been surprised at the offer to go with, but Julia was still heartened by it. “Magic forests and I don’t really get along. Or, we might on this world but I’m not sure I’m really ready to risk it yet.” Julia did not mention that the not getting along had been entirely her fault. “Actually, I know this probably sounds boring and touristy but I was thinking of just picking up some extra clothes and looking at jewelry at the port. Maybe some kickass ranger boots?” Julia shrugged at her own boring offer. “It seems like a pretty good time to supply up. The ship was attacked at the last port? If I read that right? Were you there when that happened?” Waverly felt herself grinning a little. “The braids are the best part.” She motioned to her own braid. “I’m great at braids.” She was actually pretty good at anything that she could watch a youtube video of. And she’d also been braiding hair since she was young. Someone had to do it since everyone else was too busy to. “But I mean...I’m pretty amazing, so that’s not surprising.” She tried to play it off as something particularly casual, but she couldn’t help the somewhat awkward way she ducked her head. The comment about the magic forests brought up a lot of questions that she resisted asking. She had a feeling Julia might not really want to talk about it. But maybe she’d ask later. “I have no real experiences with magic forests. Just revenants. Lots of revenants.” She shrugged slightly. “But sure. We can go shopping instead. I do think I need a really nice cloak and some other things. I have a serious need to be able to look really majestic once this is over. I can always check our Mirkwood after.” Playing idly with the end of her braid, Waverly studied Julia’s face. “Yeah. I was there. I didn’t get involved in the fight. I can shoot a gun, but I don’t have one and I’m particularly human and therefore very unfortunately delicate.” Julia was starting to get the impression there was nothing Waverly could say or do that wouldn’t come out as endearing or charming. “Probably a good call,” Julia agreed. “I am right there with you. So, shopping?” Shopping was safe. They could at least do that. Though Julia wasn’t entirely honest. Not that she could do much more than Waverly, she just lacked Waverly’s apparent wisdom to get out of the way. “You could definitely rock a cloak,” Julia said with an approving nod. She nodded with her head in an offer to let Waverly lead the way. It was a gift and a curse. She rarely paid attention to the general understanding that she was endearing or charming. She knew she was distinctly Waverly. It was something that she was known for. Cheerful and upbeat was her usual. She knew that Wynonna tended to count on that. She wondered if anyone else did. Pushing the thought out of her head, she nodded. “Shopping.” She liked shopping. She’d spent a lot of time in what clothes she had from her bag (and the few things that she got from the stores on the ship). But she felt like she needed something whimsical and magical. As if she’d really have a place to wear most of the clothes around here. Still, that didn’t really matter. She’d have a story to tell Wynonna if she ever showed up. “It’s my amazing physique. It was made for this. I need some of these dresses asap!” She made her way toward the shops, humming to herself as she did. “It’s too bad they don’t really do skirt-blouse combos. I haven’t found any cute floral skirts yet and I’m kind of bummed about it. Wynonna would probably be able to find one. She’s basically amazing like that.” Waverly wasn’t entirely sure she could actually say that Wynonna would be able to find a secret and hidden floral skirt, but Waverly liked to pretend her sister could do anything. “Wynonna is your… sister?” Julia guessed. Her arms crossed over her stomach. Wearing black leggings, she didn’t have pockets to stick them in, or a purse to fiddle with, or anything to hold in them. Even then, her fingers moved. Waverly’s cheerful attitude was little bit infectious. Julia couldn’t help but but mirror her smiles and follow along. She wasn’t even sure if Waverly was human like she said. Most humans in her experience weren’t so… nice? It almost felt like a supernatural quality. For Julia, it was a pleasant distraction. At this point, she wasn’t sure if she cared what shops they visited. “I’ll keep my eyes peeled for skirts,” Julia promised with a pseudoserious nod and an almost nearly straight face. Waverly nodded. “Yep. Big sister. I’m the youngest. We had another sister. Willa.” Her face scrunched up when she mentioned her and she looked far more sober than she had been before. “But she’s dead.” Waverly was sad. At least a little of her was sad. There was guilt in the knowledge that there was a part of her that was relieved. Happy, even. Willa hadn’t been a great sister when they were younger and she turned out to be an even worse sister when she grew up. “But let’s not talk about that.” Nope, she was going to put her smiles back on and focus on shopping. She stopped at one of the shops where there were cloaks and she stepped closer, looking at them as she did. There were some really nice colors, but she was drawn to emerald green and a sort of wine color. “Thank you for keeping an eye out,” she said, looking over at Julia again. There was something about her. Waverly wasn’t sure what, but she seemed sad. She wondered what happened, but she didn’t want to ask either. “What color do you think?” There. Maybe Waverly was human after all. With the mention of Willa, Julia started to sense Waverly was just very good at putting on a brave, chipper face. Which probably made it easier to deal with the revenants she talked about back home. Julia wanted to ask, but decided it could wait. “The green,” Julia said emphatically. The bright cheerful color matched Waverly perfectly. Looking over the wares, Julia’s eye was caught between a midnight blue and a steel gray cloak. The material and stitching felt finer than any of the mass produced clothing made back home. Would it be bad if she wanted both? “Cloaks are kinda coming back, right?” Julia tried. “I could be a cloak person with a hood?” Julia pursed her lips and posed with the cloaks, canting her head just so to finish the jest. It felt for just a moment, shockingly, refreshingly normal in a completely insane situation. Waverly smiled at the response. Julia seemed so sure of the choice. Like they were actually friends, which kind of didn’t happen a lot for Waverly. Her friends from home turned out to be pretty awful friends. All except the one. But then she had Doc. It’s just that friends who were girls seemed harder to come by with her last name and affiliation with Wynonna. Julia didn’t know all of that, though. She knew about the Revenants and stuff, but not the “everything” of it all. Still, she took the green one. If she still wanted the other one, she could always come back later. Or she could take it now. It really depended. “Cloaks are totally coming back.” Waverly felt an actual smile tugging at her lips. “You could totally be a cloak person,” she agreed, watching as Julia posed with the cloaks. She seemed really nice all things considered and probably a site better than the girls that she used to hang out with. “It’s a hard choice. Which one matches with the overall black outfit more?” She felt herself starting to laugh at that, but she suppressed the urge. “Oh my god, you’re right,” Julia said, sounding serious at first. She found a black cloak and grabbed it. And it be fair, the black suited her better. “I almost made a terrible mistake.” Julia wasn’t goth. She didn’t wear much makeup or dye her hair dark. But she was most certainly a witch, combined with the small moon tattoo on her finger and the hippie adjacent jewelry, it really did fit her a little better. “What would I have done without you?” The distraction, going out, seemed to work. For the moment, Julia smiled with her whole face. “So, ranger boots next?” she asked. Waverly had officially not meant to make her choose a black cloak. She reminded herself to come back for the steel gray cloak later for Julia. She might regret not having gotten it. Waverly didn’t like regrets like that. But she’d do it when Julia wasn’t around to give her any strange looks about it. She’d probably get the wine one for herself. Maybe she’d even get one for Eliot. Doc wasn’t a cloak sort of guy. Ranger boots, maybe. “It’s hard to say,” she replied, smiling in response to Julia’s smile. “Ranger boots sound like a good next step.” There was a bounce in her step as she walked toward the store with the ranger boots. She was kind of excited about this. She was pretty sure that it couldn’t hurt to have an extra set of boots...or three. Once she knew Doc’s shoe size, she was totally going to get him some, too. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon. Julia ended up having to buy a bag to collect all her purchases in, though it wasn’t really buying if she wasn’t spending money, was it? At least not her own money. They found boots, jewelry, Julia even found some beautiful silk robes she could style up like a kimono and wear with her leggings, just to prove that occasionally she sometimes did wear color. Sometimes. Waverly made things feel normal. Despite being in Middle Earth and acting like tourists. Despite magic being gone back home. It was almost pre-magic normal, but in a good way. Julia felt oddly kind of safe and secure. And now that the shopping trip was winding down, she was reluctant to see it end. “So, I was wondering…” Julia started with. “Like, we don’t have to go anywhere or anything, but do you want to try renting the magic clothes and see what we look like as elves and stuff?” It was probably a little childish. Julia looked mildly embarrassed for asking, but she also didn’t think Waverly was the kind of person to judge. By the end of the shopping, Waverly felt much more spirited and definitely had fare more things than she strictly needed, but she wasn’t sorry about it either. Wynonna was probably not going to be fully jealous, but it was what it was. She would spend a little time alone to get gifts for Wynonna with each place and take pictures of herself in each place until she showed up. Wynonna would have done the same for her. Looking over to Julia, Waverly smiled brightly. She was pretty happy in this moment. She had a new friend, someone who didn’t mind spending time with her and being somewhat nerdy about it. “We can totally do that.” She was a little curious anyway about how she’d look in various outfits. “But you have to promise to take pictures of each costume. I have to have something to show Doc and Wynonna if she shows.” “Deal,” Julia grinned. It was nerdy, but Julia wasn’t above being a nerd even if she didn’t always show it in public. Around Waverly it was easy to let her guard down a little. Julia even allowed herself to be a little eager and took her new friend by the hand and led her to the magical costume rentals. One of each seemed plenty: a set of badass lady dwarven armor, some comfortable hobbit overalls, an elegant elven gown. Julia couldn’t wipe the conspiratorial smile from her face as she looked at Waverly. “So, which one should we try first? Dwarf, then hobbit, then elf?” Waverly nodded at the suggestions, moving to take the braid out of her hair. She didn’t know what would happen, but she was definitely just going to let her hair do what it wanted for now. Instead of the sleek and shiny look she’d had at the party, today her hair was all waves, which was mostly due to the braid. “I’m going to be the hottest dwarf lady you’ve ever seen.” Also this was going to be a pretty exciting adventure. Maybe just a change in appearances, but Waverly was pretty sure that didn’t make it any less of an adventure. She was going to get super cute pictures out of it. She carefully put the packages of clothing down before asking for one of the dwarven costumes to rent. Putting it on, she felt herself get a little shorter and felt the beard grow out. “Okay, I really need to see this right now.” “Yeah, these dressing rooms definitely need mirrors,” Julia said. It took her a few minutes to get all the pieces of the costume on. When she did, her voice didn’t sound too different, but she was obviously shorter and her arms were ripped. Perhaps disappointing was the lack of full beard. There was growth on her chin, but it wasn’t enough to braid. Oh well. “Okay, I’m coming out on three. One. Two…” Julia’s mane of hair was thicker and just as long. Her coloring hasn’t changed. Her eyes had a slightly different glint to them. Proud. When she leapt from the dressing room, her feet landed solidly on the floor. “Tada?” Julia announced. Looking Julia over, Waverly had a moment of questionable emotion, but she just flashed a smile. “Definitely hot.” She wasn’t sure how hot she was, but she definitely could boast of more of a beard than Julia’s. Still, she was pretty sure that she was rocking this dwarf look. If she wasn’t, well, there was always being a hobbit or an elf. She could stand to look sleek and majestic for a while. She picked up her phone and held it up. “Ready for your close up?” She snapped a few more pictures than perhaps she really needed to, but she was definitely not forgetting this. Plus, they had to take a few together. They were hot dwarf ladies now. “I feel like we could definitely kick some ass like this. We would definitely win whatever fight was going down.” Even if Waverly was less sure of being able to kick ass as her normal, very human self. Julia nodded in agreement, making a bit of a face the moment Waverly’s phone started taking pictures. “Okay, the ones of me stay between you and me.” But Julia relaxed slightly and came in to take a selfie with Waverly. “I feel like this would be easier with longer arms. We need a dwarven selfie stick.” At least they were going to be able to get their faces in the photo. Once those were taken, Julia used Waverly’s phone to snap a few pictures of her in her dwarven finest. “Dwarven gun show, let’s go,” Julia encouraged. “But how else can I let people see how hot of a dwarf lady you are?” She smiled a little. “Kidding, of course. I’ll keep them to myself. You don’t have to worry.” She didn’t really have anyone to show outside of Doc anyway. Well, and Eliot, but...that’s what the single pictures were for. All her poses were the super cute sort of poses that she’d normally have done. She wasn’t sure how that translated into her dwarf lady thing, but she wasn’t going to worry about it too much. Laughing, Waverly flexed her arm to see what her muscles looked like and found them to be a lot more than she had as a human. “I’m pretty amazing like that.” She glanced over to look at Julia, eyes lingering for a moment on her face before the Dwarven gun show portion of it. It couldn’t hurt to notice someone a little. It didn’t mean anything. But now she was curious about how Julia would look as a hobbit and then an elf. She was pretty sure if she looked any more ethereal than she did as a person, it would be kind of weird to look at. “Nice. Definite approval.” She grinned widely. “How long do you want to be a dwarf before we become hobbits?” “Oh, I think I had my fill. Any more and I’m going to start to get some serious beard envy. Seriously, what is this fuzz on my chin? I got ripped off.” Julia wasn’t actually too upset about that, but she was certain there would be dwarves out there with opinions if it ever got out. “Okay, I’m putting the hobbit costume on.” Julia tossed Waverly’s phone back to her. Despite being stout and strong, she felt surprisingly confident in small, basic acts of athleticism and coordination. More solid than a human, that was for sure. She stepped back into the dressing room to strip off the dwarf clothes. It was a little strange, going from short to tall to even shorter. Maybe she should have waited a few moments between costume changes. Julia placed her hand against the dressing room stall to steady herself until the walls no longer felt like they were spinning. The hobbit clothing itself was adorable. Instead of a dress, Julia had selected a pair of overalls and a simple linen shirt. Her feet looked huge. Doubly so with her new diminutive height. Her hair, however, had become a bit of a nightmare. It was still long, and so, so curly. There was no taming her new hair, and she started laughing in the stall as she tried patting it down with her fingers, only to feel it spring back up. “Okay, I’m coming out, this is ridiculous,” Julia warned. Waverly found herself giggling, which felt like such a weird thing to do as a dwarf. She caught her phone before stepping into her own dressing room as well, carefully putting her clothes back on the hanger. She changed into the hobbit costume and felt herself shrink again. Her hair got curlier and a little messier than she was expecting. She also looked down to see about the hairy feet. They were probably the weirdest part of the whole thing. But she was pretty sure she looked super adorable. She had definitely gone for the dress. She was a girl and dresses were a thing she enjoyed when she was going to try to be adorable. Stepping out of the dressing room, Waverly waited for Julia to come out as well. “You will totally look adorable and so am I.” She grinned widely, bouncing in place as she waited. When Julia finally came out, her expression changed from excitement to one of someone just realizing how adorable something was. Maybe she’d seen a small puppy. But no, it was just Julia. “You were right. This is ridiculous. Ridiculously adorable.” She held up her phone, snapping a few pictures because it was very important. “You have never been more adorable. I mean, maybe when you were a kid, but I didn’t know you then.” Moving over closer, she gave Julia one of her best smiles. “Now we need some Team Hobbit selfies and a few of me on my own!” This felt nice. Really nice. Julia laughed with embarrassment, seeing her tiny adorable self and her giant curls of hair reflected back on the phone screen and just went with it. Pretty much all of her other friends were dead, hated her or Quentin. Quentin’s friends tolerated her, she supposed. And maybe Julia was just heartened to be around someone like Waverly who didn’t know all of that. So without thinking, in one of the selfies, Julia threw her arms around the other woman and planted a friendly smooch to the side of her face. Because how else were they going to make a selfie of two adorable hobbits anymore adorable? Julia was still laughing when she took the phone from Waverly and started snapping some pictures. Waverly definitely made the World’s Most Adorable Hobbit. “We can be Merry and Pippa,” Julia teased. They were probably closer in personality to Frodo and Samwise, but Julia didn’t go there. Waverly felt her entire face heat up and she hoped the surprise didn’t register on her face as much as it registered on the inside of her. She was a pretty affectionate person in general, but she wasn’t used to other people being the same with her. Much less when they didn’t know her all that well. She forced a smile, one of her cutest, and snapped the picture. “Which one of us is Pippa?” She laughed. “I assume that’s the girl version of Pippin?” She smoothed her dress down as she let her hair fall around her face a little more. “I really don’t know which one would suit me better.” She thought maybe she wasn’t really any of the main people, but it was hard to say for sure. Maybe she was just a side story, someone who was a name. She wasn’t even sure what she was in her own story. She wasn’t the heir, she wasn’t really anyone outside of Wynonna’s sister and well, okay, she was a pretty badass researcher and she definitely helped some, but she seemed to get herself into trouble more often than not. That or she got her girlfriend shot by her own sister. “Whichever one you want,” Julia promised. She handed Waverly back her phone with a smile. This time she didn’t risk tossing it. Maybe that was a hobbit sensibility thing, she wasn’t sure. Were there minor personality changes and quirks as the different races? “You ready to be an elf?” Julia asked. She slipped into the dressing room to get into the last costume. The hobbits were pretty cute, but their hair was more obnoxious than having a beard. Too much, too curly, Julia would never complain about her hair again. Between being a dwarf and a hobbit, she’d almost gotten used to being short. As she started to slip on the gown, she wasn’t prepared to get taller. Apparently elves were closer to the six-foot mark than the five. Without announcing herself, Julia slipped out of the dressing room to see what Waverly would look like. “Never been more ready in my life.” Waverly made her way back into the dressing room, happy to change again. She wasn’t sure what to ready herself for with the last costume. The other two she was at least certain of a few things. For this, she couldn’t be sure if she’d be more of an Arwen or a Galadriel. Not that either was a problem. Both would be nice. She stepped into the dress, feeling herself grow a little taller. She was normally 5’4”, now she definitely felt really tall. She’d carefully stepped out. Her hair was longer, with soft waves and she felt almost like there was a light shining off of her skin, but then she was also pretty sure that was just her feeling like that’s how elves were. Soft and radiant and beautiful. She very probably wasn’t actually glowing. When Julia stepped out, she found herself staring for a moment before her brain kicked in. “Now we’re in model territory. Everyone would be seriously jealous.” She pulled out her phone again to take pictures, trying not to think too much about it. For a split second, she could imagine Nicole in this moment and her heart hurt to think about it. She wished her mind had thought of Wynonna instead. “Time for our together selfies and then a few of me.” Moving closer to Julia, she held up her phone, which was easier this time, to get a few pictures of them as elves together. “We’re definitely going to make everyone jealous.” They made quite a pair. Waverly had an ethereal moonlight sort of glow to her, while Julia maintained her bronze complexion and looked like the sun with her dark, golden hair and deep eyes of ore. “Everyone who didn’t decide to dress up, anyway.” Julia smiled. “I wish I knew how they made these enchantments. I could probably duplicate it if I had the spellwork they used.” For their elf pictures, it required more ethereal posing. Julia leaned her head toward Waverly. She directed them to take an eyes closed, looking wise shot. Though afterward Julia laughed because they may have also just looked asleep. She tried. Apparently elves didn’t need that much help to look knowing and wise. “Okay, solo pics.” Julia took the phone and tried not to stare too hard. Waverly was not a plain looking girl by any stretch, but with the elf ears and everything else, she practically looked like a goddess. Julia tried and failed not to notice and when they were finished, placed the phone carefully back in Waverly’s hand like a secret. “Thank you for this.” “Even them.” Waverly wasn’t sure it was true, but that was just one of those things she would say no matter what. “Oh. You can do magic?” Because Waverly hadn’t known. She still had some sort of particular feelings about it after her encounter with the Stone Witch, but Julia didn’t seem so bad and she had plenty of time to do something and nothing had happened. Waverly really tried not to do her overly cutesy poses, but it was kind of difficult not to at least do a couple cute poses. When she was done, she took the phone back. “You’re welcome. I don’t have a lot of girl friends at home. I don’t have a lot of boy friends either. I just don’t have a lot of friends.” She laughed nervously for a moment. “So it was nice to have a day with someone who didn’t mind getting clothes and doing very nerdy things with me. It’s kind of the most normal day I’ve had in my whole life.” “Yeah,” Julia said with a nod. It seemed better to leave the topic of magic at that. At least until she understood Waverly’s feelings on the matter a little better. When Waverly’s lack of friends came up, Julia nodded. “Me too.” Quentin’s friends were still sort of technically his friends that put up with Julia mostly because of her relationship to Q. Maybe. She wasn’t sure. The fact that they came from different timelines made it harder to pin down. “I guess I know who to call next time I want to do something normal,” Julia offered with a smile. Next time she wanted to feel normal anyway. Realizing she was still in the elf costume and didn’t look remotely normal she rolled her eyes. “Speaking of normal, I’m getting out this costume.” And she slipped back into the dressing room to do so. There was a smile. “I’m always here for when you need to feel normal.” But she did agree about the costume. It was definitely taking away from the normalcy, but it felt so pretty. Still, she made her way back to the dressing room and changed back into her own clothes. When she came back out, she felt more like herself. She collected her things and looked over at Julia. “I guess I should drop all of this off at my room, but if you want to hang out ever, just let me know. I can introduce you to my friend Doc. Then you’ll have two more friends than you had before.” She offered a small smile. “He’s good people. I mean, sometimes he make bad decisions, but he’s always there when you need him.” When Julia stepped out of the dressing room, oddly relieved to be herself again, she picked up her shopping back and hefted it over her shoulder. “That sounds like the title of my memoir.” Though she was being serious, the witch couldn’t quite contain the small, wry smile on her lips. “I’ll see you around?” Julia smiled with a small wave when they parted. Mission accomplished, she hadn’t felt sorry for herself for most of the afternoon. |