she's looking at everyone with a secret smile

[realimperfect]

who: Re-L Mayer & Friends
what: Assorted Shenanigans
when: The month of September!
where: Her apartment, around Riverview, the Ruins, anywhere really...
warnings: None yet? I'll add some if it's needed for sure

Comments

[bringbackgold]

She could say that all she wants, but that didn't mean he wouldn't think of himself short. That's the way it was when one was an eighteen year old male around several people who were taller than he was. Still, it wasn't like he felt bad about his height. No one ever made him feel bad about it, either. He was bigger, broader than others. Still, he was impressed to hear that this was normal for her back home.

"It doesn't bother me," he said. He was sure to let her know that much, at least. "I don't look short when I perform." That much was true. He never looked short when he was on the ice, or when he was on a large stage working as a DJ. He was always in charge, he was always the center of attention.

It didn't matter.

"They should," he noted. But it wasn't like he knew what size she wore. "They have a decent variety." Once she was inside, he let the door close behind him, taking a few steps in to browse around. He guessed it was because they were used to accommodating a different crowd - people from off world.

He loved the way this place felt, and he immediately shifted to start browsing the racks of clothes.

[realimperfect]

"Then you're talented as a performer." Granted, there's very few people who do performing as a profession where she's from, but they were all long and small in build anyway, like most people around her. Still, if Otabek managed to look as long and graceful than he was more talented than they were, if she's honest. It's one thing to be born with the natural finesse, it's another to not have the 'ideal' shape and make it work anyway. Then again, she is very much the non-ideal woman who had to force her way through anyways herself, so..

Maybe it's a little ego stroking there, too.

"There's nothing a little decent tailoring can't fix, either." Now that Re-L had the option of her own style, her own everything? She's damn well going to take every chance to make her own style. Rack upon rack of clothing she can pick through is more than enough to switch her away from conversations of height, at least, as she's instead flicking through a rack of skirts, holding them up to gauge length. Most.. well, tend to be what would be considered 'too short' at home, which means Re-L is about them both for the style and the rebellion. There's a particular one she happens across that laces in the front a little, not revealing as there's leather behind the laced parts as well, but -

She holds it to herself, looking in a nearby mirror as if this is the biggest decision she'll make in her life.

"Otabek, what do you think?"

[bringbackgold]

He takes her compliment when it's offered. He appreciates the compliment. Truly. Though he's never been one to boast about what skills he has, there is a reason he is considered among the best in the world. At the very least, he's one of the best in his country at figure skating. He's still working his way to popularity at his work as a DJ. He was glad to have that skill, though. It was a good back-up plan since he wouldn't be able to figure skate forever. It had helped him here.

He was always about being successful despite not being conventional. He was good at working with what he had. Always had to, so he figured it out. "Thank you," he answers, before stepping away from her to go their separate ways and browse through clothing.

He figures she might want to be left to her devices to look for a little bit, so he browses through a few jackets. He sees some things he likes for himself, and a couple things he considers picking up for Yuri. He'll have to ponder them, which is why he welcomes her question.

He looks her over for a moment, and considers the skirt briefly. "It looks good," he answers with a small smile. It does, too. He was a fan of leather and laced up details. "It has good details." He was sure to let her know he noticed.

[realimperfect]

"Not too short, you think?" It was worth the question. Re-L is a rather leggy girl (hard not to be, at her height) and many skirts that weren't conventionally short tended to appear as such. Generally as a rule of thumb Re-L isn't at all as body conscious as others from different iterations of Earth may be - on her own Earth bodies were never, ever sexualized enough for the length of a skirt to matter in anything but her grandfather's over blown idea of their "image" as a family. A regent's granddaughter wasn't to dress like some common woman who hadn't been made for a very specific purpose - he would look and act proper at all times -

Except she'd blown all of those ideas to hell, and had now ended up in Riverview, where her freedoms were much expanded, but...

She was still coming to grips with new social norms, and all of them sucked.

"Not that it matters all that much, but... it seems worth asking so I can gauge what reactions I may get out of it, right?"

[bringbackgold]

Otabek considered he concern for a moment. Short skirts weren't ever something he thought about, not that he ever really noticed them either. He never really looked at girls, but when he worked as a DJ, the skirt she picked out didn't seem any shorter than other things he had seen. He looked her over, and then to the skirt. After a few moments, he shook his head. "Not at all."

He has no reason to think that she would get any sort of negative reaction from the way that she's dressing. He knows that not everyone thinks like him, of course, but he doesn't think she'd get any comments worth caring about wearing it, at least.

But maybe it is the fact that he only cares about what other people think when he's competing or doing his job. Outside of that, he's not particular.

"I don't think anyone will say anything. I think it'll look good."

[realimperfect]

"Honestly this isn't something I've ever had to consider until I arrived here, oddly enough." She shrugs, but seems set on the skirt - even if Otabek had said it might be a little too short. Of course, it requires a little saying, too, as if Otabek needs to know why she was consulting him about the length in the first place. "In the Quarantine it's like those kinds of things are exponentially more important. Which is strange, considering everything was regulation or what grandfather chose previously." Re-L and her appearance were all part of Donov's 'brand' after all - his master plan for Romdeau Dome and the last paradise on a destroyed Earth. She'd been left with little left to do other than follow (some of) his directives, a dangerous game of giving in when she needed to, other times dancing around her instructions to do what she wanted.

"Of course, here people are a bit more..." She pauses, makes a vague motion with her hand, long fingers making a circular motion. "Open with just about everything."

[bringbackgold]

Otabek has no point of reference, really beyond girls at clubs. His family was fairly conservative, so he is sure that it wouldn't be appropriate at home. But here, here is different, and he has no reason to think that there is anything wrong with the skirt. He tilted his head after a moment of silence, hearing her say how things were for her at home. "He picked out your clothes?" he asked. There was nothing but curiosity in his voice. He had been pretty much on his own for awhile. He liked it that way, though.

"They are, aren't they?" He noticed it, too. It was nice to be around people who were so open and free about so much. He liked it. It was different from what he was used to. He also found that while he still made a lot of his life about work while here, it didn't have to be.

"I like it." It was a simple answer, really. But he did.