InsaneJournal

Last time I had sort of a barbarian thing going..
Who: Elizabeth Swann and Irene Adler
What: Costume shops
When: recently
Where: A costume shop
Status: complete
rating: Pg


Elizabeth fingered the soft fabric, rubbing it between her thumb and forefinger and thinking critically on it. She’d been on her way to test out a new fake ID at a bar nearby, but had been distracted by the costume shop on the way there. She was looking at a gorgeous crimson coat, with gold and silver buttons. It wasn’t very lady-like, but she didn’t care. It had captured her attention, and the young woman was enthralled.

Irene had had a long damned day, and she was treating herself to a reward. It was almost Halloween, and she was looking forward to a year of dressing as something a little less time-consuming than last year’s Swamp Thing. She was going to be Anne Bonny, the pirate queen, and for that, she needed a good-looking man’s jacket.

As she turned the corner into the next aisle, she set a hand on a deep red coat, but didn’t notice that another hand was pulling it from the other direction, half hidden behind the racks. “Oh! Sorry.” Irene laughed.

Miss Swann jumped, and looked over the jacket at the other woman. She spoke steadily, with an English accent that was soft, but noticeable. “I was a little distracted. It’s a beautiful jacket.”

“It fits the costume I’m putting together, but if you were planning on buying it, I can get something else.” Irene said, looking over at her. She was awfully young, but self-assured. Pretty, too. “I’m guessing you cosplay too?”

“Cosplay? Sort of. I just do the faire, and I want to put together something for next year. I try to do something different every time.” She kind of wished it was more often, but she hadn’t really discovered anything in the area that would let her make believe more often. April couldn’t get here soon enough.

“Last time I had sort of a barbarian thing going, but I’ve always been fascinated by pirates.” She had pictures of her previous costumes, and she’d break them out if she saw a chance.

Irene laughed. “That does work out. I was planning on being Anne Bonny this year. I like to cosplay at conventions and obviously, at Halloween.”

“Oh you’d make a gorgeous Anne Bonny! And Halloween is a great time to try out new costumes. I wasn’t going for anything too historical.” Elizabeth rubbed at the fabric again, enchanted. “It’ll be my first pirate.”

“You said faire. Do you work at a ren faire, or just enjoy them?” Irene was curious. “If you work at one, I could imagine that historical might get a little old.”

“I just enjoy them. I doubt I’d get away with working at one. My father would probably have a cow if he knew just what I get up to when he’s not looking.” She smirked, a confident and slightly mischievous little smile.

Irene laughed. “Oh, sounds like how I grew up. Except my parents were away all the time, so I probably could’ve gotten away with working at one!”

“That would be nice…” She sighed. “It’s so much more fun than the things I have to do now.” Private school was boring. She’d much rather be lost in her fantasies than attend another one of her father’s functions.

“You look like you’re still in school. I know mine sucked.” Irene was sympathetic. “When I was in high school I almost died of boredom, and in college, I couldn’t get enough to to do.”

“Finished last semester. I’m in that process of selecting between one of the three Universities my father picked out for me.” Elizabeth scowled.

“ ... Ew.” Irene made a face. “That’s ... dehumanizing.” Thank God her parents hadn’t been like that. Even if she’d been lonely as a child, that was better than being controlled.

“What he doesn’t know is I applied to several others,” Elizabeth said, smartly. She wanted her freedom and she would take it if she had to.

“Well done.” Irene laughed. “I didn’t have a choice of schools, but that’s because I got a full ride to one. Kinda had to take that one.” She stuck a hand out. “My name’s Irene.”

“I don’t blame you. It would be foolish not to take advantage of something like that!” She knew she was lucky in that she could afford to go anywhere, she just wanted to have a choice in the matter. Or at least get to live on her own in the process. “Elizabeth.” She took Irene’s hand

“It’s nice to meet you.” And it really was. This girl seemed smart and headstrong, which was pretty much exactly how Irene had been ten years ago.

“Thank you! It’s nice to meet someone else interested in this stuff. Away from the faire, I mean. I can’t exactly be open about it around the house, or my friends.” She wouldn’t really call them friends anyway. Most of them would rather talk about fashion.

“Pity.” Irene shook her head. “I actually think a costume tends to wind up like a math problem - you have to get the components exactly right.”

“Otherwise you look all cocked up and silly.” She covered her mouth. “Excuse me.”

“It’s okay.” Irene did her best not to laugh. “You do look pretty silly if you’re missing a component or something, but you know that. You seem like you’ve done the costume thing pretty well before.”

“I did a lot of research. My first time was horrible and I looked like....” She waved her hands, trying to express with them just how utterly horrible her costume had made her look.

Irene grinned. “My very first costume ever, for anything, was a Halloween costume and I was supposed to be Catherine the Great. I had the skirt wrong, the petticoats wrong, even the wig was wrong.”

“Did anyone notice, or did you get away with your pride intact?” Elizabeth asked, with gleaming eyes.

“Oh, they noticed.” Irene shook her head. “They called me Marie Antoinette all night, and for a history costume nerd like my humble self, that was really galling.” She laughed at the memory. “I kept getting ‘off with my head’ jokes.”

She found herself grinning at Irene as the older woman told her story. “That must have been so embarrassing. How do you live it down?”

“By being sharper and better than the others.” Irene got her phone out, rummaging through her file folders. “This past Dragon*Con, I went as Mina Harker from Dracula. Look.” She showed the girl the photo - everything was period accurate, and she still had a callus on her index finger from sewing the damn bodice together. “I did research for six months before I put it together.”

“That’s beautiful!” Period anything made Elizabeth’s skin tingle. She fished around until she found her own phone. Unlocking it, she flipped to her renfaire albums. There was a photo of her looking like a cross between Red Sonja and Conan, but with some metal shoulder plates. “It’s not really accurate to anything but it looked cool. Now this one…” It was a three muskateers type outfit, with period accurate symbols and a real sword. “I won’t lie, I didn’t do most of the sewing…”

“That first one is really cool.” Irene grinned, but her face lit up even more at the Three Musketeers outfit. “Oh, wow. I don’t know that much about the period, but it looks fantastic.”

“I wanted something that was right for the time period, rather than any specific movie. But I’ve always loved that Disney live action one.”

God, that made Irene feel old, but she laughed. “I’ve done that myself, with Dracula. I eventually went with period accurate, but I loved Gary Oldman’s Dracula, from the early 90s. I chose to do an homage, I guess.”

“I saw that one once. When my father wasn’t looking.” She grinned impishly, as though she did a lot of things when her father wasn’t looking.

Irene got that message. “I hope you get a chance to experience everything you’ve ever wanted,” she said. “Life is about experiences, not toeing some line.”

“I should…” She looked at the fabric again, torn between being nice and letting the other woman have it, and being selfish and taking it for herself. She bit her lower lip, then hugged it to herself. “A proper pirate doesn’t let anyone take her jacket.”

Irene raised one eyebrow, and laughed. “You have a fair point! Just watch, you’ll wind up as Mary Read yet.” She’d let the girl have this one. “You’ll get a surrender without a boarding party this time; I think it might fit you a little better anyway.” She wasn’t meaning to be rude, just truthful; Elizabeth was a little slimmer in the arm and chest region than she was.

Elizabeth pulled it on and posed. The jacket was longer than the skirt she was wearing, but it was stylish and the color worked well with her hair. She plucked a hat off of another rack and put it on. “I’ll let you go this time, but next time we cross paths, we’ll come to blows!”

Irene laughed. “The next time, you won’t be so lucky, Miss Elizabeth!” But she got one of her cards out, handing it to the girl. “If you ever have any questions about where to get stuff or anyone to help, get a hold of me. I’d love to help; it’s fun for me.”

“Thank you so much, Miss Irene.” She took the card, then turned and headed to the front of the store to purchase her hat and jacket.

“Nice to meet a fellow enthusiast.” Irene waved before heading back into the racks to find her own jacket. Maybe she could take a man’s jacket and push the seams around.