InsaneJournal

Who: Sylvanas Windrunner, Yumichika Ayasegawa
What: Shopping part deux, in which Sylvanas shows how much she has changed thus far. Yumi is also gossipy. He probably shouldn’t have been, but oh well. It’s what he does with his shopping buddies.
When: After this exchange on the valar net. It’s belated because I forgot to post. ._.
Rating: Lowish, since it’s just shopping and talking.
Status: Complete!




Yumichika was looking posh as always. He was waiting outside yet another boutique for Sylvanas to show up, so he could see for his own lovely eyes, what made her think she was a ruthless bitch with oddly colored skin. Sure, she might pass for one of those sad little goth things, but even he had turned them around into fabulous creatures.

And besides that, Sylvanas was an Elf. How is that not fabulous? Bitches, it is. Deal.

Sylvanas had worn her blackest outfit, with purple highlights and heels that would kill a normal woman. Her hair was paler than it had been before, still golden but the kind of gold that was almost white. Her skin was paler as well. Still flesh colored but graying. It was her eyes that had the greatest change. They were no longer the color of the sky. They had turned a bloody red.

“Looking good, as always.”

Although he could feel something heading in his direction, he had chalked it up to that strange energy that surrounded Sylvanas before. Her arrival wasn't enough for him to turn his attention to her until she spoke. When that happened, Yumichika turned his head and had his mouth open for an appraisal, but his words caught in his throat.

His eyes were a little wider than the norm, but he quickly recovered.

"You...have definitely undergone a change, haven't you," he finally said, looking her up and down, then pointed down at those shoes before he even started in on anything else. "Shoes. Ouch. Unless those cost a bare minimum of two hundred and ninety-nine dollars, we have to get you out of those. Heels are acceptable, especially heels like that. Hi. Runway."

His eyes skimmed upward, ignoring the color of her hair, which was spectacular. But the skin...oh my...and those eyes? Oh myyyyyy.

"...we may need a special effects artist," he said, softly, since this might require some reverse engineering.

They hadn’t cost that much and she wasn’t going to say it, she just liked the fact she could probably puncture someone’s shin with one. “I was thinking contacts. Or sunglasses. Or are sunglasses at night a faux pass?” She brushed some hair off of her shoulder, and the way it moved in the light made it look shiny and radiant, like the moon with a golden hue.

"Oh your hair is fantastic," he remarked, a little envious. He was a vain creature, after all. His own had a purple sheen to it that was more vibrant under sunlight, and served to accentuate his eyes. But that golden moon thing...fab.u.lous. "We're not touching that. You are going to need sunglasses. Which will make this work, somehow or other. It does not matter if it's at night. They'll suspect you're important and that's all that matters."

Besides, he didn't think there was a good way to cover up those eyes with contacts, without some red bleeding through. Ahem.

"Let's go in, shall we?" And he stood there, waiting, for the door to the boutique to open. He's still not opening it, OK?! Doors should magically open FOR HIM.

“It’ll get less gold, I’m afraid. Silver, or white.” She stepped past him and got the door, tearing it open like it was some gnat that only existed to be squashed beneath her boot. “After you.” She gestured for him to enter, and licked her lips.

"Gorgeous. I don't think you should be afraid of that," he said, staring as some old lady just walked out with a toy poodle tucked under one arm. How nice of Sylvanas to open the door for them both.

"Thank you, it was taking forever," Yumichika said, waving a hand dismissively in the lady's face as she stared at him like THE AUDACITY OF THESE WHIPPERSNAPPERS. "Your facelift is horrible. You look like it was done by an inexperienced construction crew."

He waltzed past her, ignoring the dog's growling at both himself and Sylvanas. Animals were so pesky around things that were comprised of any sort of spiritual energy. The smaller they were, the more threatened they felt, but the tiny dogs tended to get angry and yappy. Yumichika was quickly learning to ignore it. Tiny dogs weren't beautiful. They were like little icky piddly rodents.

Sylvanas looked at the poodle like she wanted to rip it’s head off and put it on an Abomination. Actually, that would be pretty funny. If she ever got a Royal Apothecary she’d have to suggest it. “Just go inside, it’s cold out. My nipples could puncture the titanic.”

"We're in California. It's not that cold." Yumichika turned and looked directly at Sylvanas' breasts. "Maybe some plate glass windows, but not the Titanic."

With a sigh, he looked around, like where should they start over with her new look? "Dresses..daywear...oh, daywear. You want to blend in right? We can work on making you look dead sexy afterward."

Emphasis on the dead part.

“Oh, I’m sure I’ll just start a new fashion. Blue and grey and purples.” She smiled grimly, then closed the door and followed him in. “Will there be enough make up to cover me from head to toe?”

"I hate to say it, but you might have to go to someone I know of that paints himself every day. He's crazy and he'll think of you as an experiment. And it will smudge off."

Yumi shook his head as he headed toward some of the darker colored clothes that were suitable for wearing every day. Nothing cheap looking, of course.

"We'll have to try long sleeves and higher collars, and then you can try makeup and powders to make your skin look pale, but it's not going to look natural. Only during the day. It will be easier for you to blend in at night anyway."

Sylvanas made a face. “I don’t think I need to worry about it making me sick.” It made sense, though. This idea of covering as much as possible. It would be a problem in the summer, but for now it’ll work. She brushed her hair back and fingered her ears. They were about two inches longer than they used to be and pointed. “In my dreams, my ears are twice the height of my head.”

"There won't be any easy way to cover those up. But there's odder people running around in this area, so you might be able to get away with it. Either way, simply say you're a performance artist, and people won't ask too many questions."

He smiled as though that was a simple enough explanation, and it might even work!

“Let’s try this, this, and this,” he said, holding up a few items that offered significant coverage, in the right colors of dark purple, grey, or black.

“Performance artist. So a liar.” She snorted, then took the objects. She would miss showing off her cleavage… “This will make me look good still?” She’d gotten rather vain, just like her elvish self.

"You're different. We all are. Do you want to live like a hermit? Say you're a performance artist, a singer, a dancer, or a cosplayer if someone asks. You won't see them again afterward anyway, so tell them whatever you think they want to hear," Yumi replied, nodding to her as he handed her those clothes. "You look good now and, like I said, I can still work with this. If your ears were five feet long and shot fireworks out of them? I could still work with it. You're still beautiful. Consider it...being more exotic than the plain people around you."

“God no, I don’t want to live like a hermit.” Sylvanas wrinkled up her nose at the very thought. She wanted to lead an army. She wanted to crush her enemies, and drive a sword through Arthas’ black heart.

She blinked. “I’m still beautiful?”

Still standing before her, Yumichika incredulously stared at her.

"Yes, you are. You're different and I still don't know what it is you're changing into. It's something...not alive. But you're beautiful and feirce looking. You're still an Elf. Look at those ears of yours." He shook his head a little and smiled. "If worse came to worse and I had to slay you to have you pass on to the hereafter, I would feel a measure of regret for doing that to one of my fellow beautiful creatures. I mean, look at your hair."

He reached out and let it glide over his fingertips.

"There isn't a trace of a split, a bend, a dry anything there. It is perfection. Don't forget that. Forgetting that isn't a confidence booster. It makes kittens cry. Think of the kittens."

“I don’t know if it improves with death, or simply froze in time in that moment,” she said, honestly. She touched her hair again, and smiled. He really knew how to make her feel alive. “But my heart still beats, for now.”

If there was one thing that Yumichika lived and breathed for, outside of battle, it was living by his sense of aesthetics. He told himself, she was still beautiful, because she was. He saw beauty even in Ikkaku, with all of his rough mannerisms and his very much bald (sorry Ikkaku, you are bald) head. It might even be said that Yumichika, beautiful creature that he was, could find beautiful things everywhere around him.

And if it was ugly, then there was no way he was going to look at it, because he didn't like assualting his eyeballs like that. Eww.

"Worry about that when it happens," Yumichika told her with a smile, hopeful that it was simply being frozen in time. "If it ever stops, that is. I'm relatively sure that I probably won't register a pulse either, soon enough. And that means, if any of us get injured, we are going to have a terrible time finding a healer capable of mending us. Other than Captain Kurotsuchi...he probably has all of the notes of things he studied, here and in his dreams. I wouldn't put it past him."

How easily Yumichika slipped into his usual ways of gossiping, much as he was so prone to do with Rangiku, or lately with Toshiro. He probably would with Yachiru too, when they next spoke to one another.

“Is this that person with the paint?” She asked, curiously. She’d have to make note of that. Someone who could heal a person like her, since she didn’t have access to the healing magics of her dreams. “What kind of man is he?”

"Yes. He's a scientist. A mad scientist. When things couldn't be healed with regular means by our healing division, they went to the scientific research division and were modified, there. I imagine he's the same here as he was where I was from." He shrugged a little, appreciatively eyeing some nearby silk scarves. "I wouldn't be surprised if he was trying to recreate everything he knew from before. But I can't think of anyone who goes out of their way to talk to him. He's incredibly creepy."

“Maybe he could heal a creature such as myself. Maybe he could...reverse this curse.” Sylvanas looked down at her hands, then balled them into a fist. It was hard to feel anything but anger, but she tried. She was desperate to try.

"He can probably make a new body but I'm no scientist. I don't know what he's capable of here," he admitted, watching her clench her fists from out under lowered eyelids. "He never liked leaving his labs and, honestly, without our captain-commander to give orders, some of the captains would bicker with one another, or threaten, or ignore those they didn't like. It was an organized disarray, with too many clashing personalities, if one were to ask me."

They didn't but he was saying it anyway, "I imagine it's going to be much the same now, considering a few recent developments. I also can't give you an introduction, because I didn't know him well there, and I don't, here. You'll have to interest him as a test subject, to get him to see you."

“I’m sure there’s a few things about me to interest him,” she replied, thoughtfully. Maybe she should just sneak in and look around. It was worth a shot.

"Perhaps, but you should still be careful," he warned. "He's volatile when angered and usually only helps others if there's some things he can get out of it, for himself."

He snatched up one of the scarves and held it up by her face, to see if the color suited. It was a deep, rich, and very dark red. So dark, it was almost black, and when the silk rippled, the folds in the fabric did turn black. He made a pleasant little noise like that worked, and left it draped over her shoulder, like it was a keeper.

“So he’s in it for himself. I can understand that. I can respect that.” Sylvanas stroked the silk and shivered. That felt wonderful against her skin. And feeling anything was a premium right now. “I like this color. It’s dark, but still vibrant.”

"We can do the deep dark colors." He was plucking out anything that looked like it qualified, much darker than what he had originally picked out. "And he is definitely all about what he's interested in. That's your foot in the door. Which reminds me, those shoes have got to go. Lets get you some sexy boots with some heel on them. No one will mess with you then, and boots are one of those failsafe fashion items."

“I like these shoes, they could kill someone,” she replied, narrowing her eyes as her voice took on an unearthly echo. The echo faded and she blinked her eyes. That was strange. “Show me these boots. I’d like them to kill someone too.”

That wasn't normal. Yumichika stared at her for a moment, and then said, "Performance artist. You come with your own audio effects. The boots are at a shoe store, so let's get these things, they'll fit you, trust me. Then we can get you something that I hope you won't be killing people with. You're supposed to love your footwear, not love killing with it."

“Just anyone who tries to hurt me,” she cautioned. Sylvanas didn’t want to sound like a nutjob. She dreamed she was a bit crazy to begin with and it was getting to her. She followed Yumi around. “Make up is going to be a bitch.”

"I don't even know what we're going to do there. What color are you in your dreams?" he asked, wonderingly. It was good to know since he should be aware of where things were headed overall. And because he wanted to know for reasons outside of fashion.

Sylvanas picked up a strip of fabric. It was a kind of blue that was dark like navy but more towards the greyer edge of the spectrum. “A little lighter than this, from head to toe. Some areas darker but you can use your imagination.”

"...." They were going to need a cover story for that, Yumichika was thinking, as he stared at it. He didn't need to use his imagination. Then he had a eureka moment and smiled, vividly, like he got it.

"Remember that older man who died recently, that was on the news? Colloidal silver. It turned his skin blue-ish. Voila. Problem solved and you have something that people would believe, in an instant. Only you're using it to your advantage, by making it beautiful and not something to be ashamed of."

Yumichika smiled like he was so pleased with his brilliance and the fact that he took so much notice of other people's skin, to remember a news story like that! To prove it, he even said, “I love me, sometimes. Oh, who are we kidding? I love me, all of the time.”

“Colloidal silver?” She’d have to research that, but it could definitely work, and she could own it. “At least I’m not in a visible field.” She rubbed at her chin. “I’m going to need to talk to my employer…”

Dancing could be a problem.

Or dancing could be seriously fabulous.

"I'm sure there's some sort of medical name for it, but I believe that's what turned them blue-ish. Check into it. Tell your employer you took too much of it and it simply won't go away, and use it to your advantage."

Yumichika would have made the perfect predator, if not for the fact his sword's spirit was so obviously a peacock. Soon enough, he would be affixing feathers to his eyebrow and eyelashes on the right side of his face. And he would make it work. Because he looks good in everything.

“Onward, to the shoe store,” he said, looking oh so pleased with himself. Which isn’t out of the norm.

“I’ll double check, and read up on that. I’ll probably need to answer questions but just showing up for her ought to be enough.” She smiled, wryly. This time she paid for the clothing, and a little happily. It was good to fend for oneself, and she felt better buying things.

Shopping therapy!