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Basic Strategy, Monday, Period 4

The class was back in the Danger Shop this week, and Tyrion was in considerably better form than he had been the Monday before.

The back area of the shop was set up as a boutique, with racks of fashionable and vintage clothing for all occasions and large curtained dressing areas -- including makeup and hair tables -- to the side. A magazine rack placed near the center of the area held a wide variety of current fashion magazines.

Tyrion gathered the students near the front of the area. He hoped he'd be able to hold their attention, evem if he was competing with clothing.

"A few weeks ago," he began, "I ran through some of the areas in which one might be advantaged. The first one we looked at was strength; this week, we'll be looking at beauty." He paused there, half expecting a laugh; what could a dwarf know of beauty?

The stabbing thought passed, and he continued. "You cannot change the form you were born with -- or not without considerable effort and pain. You can, though, make the most of it. Your clothing should be neat, clean, and as high-quality as you can afford." This may have been easier for a Lannister to say.

"Any outfits you wear should make the most of your form without suggesting it might be for sale -- unless, of course, you are for sale. Your hair should be neat and nicely styled, any cosmetics discreetly applied. I won't deny I'm no expert on the fashions of this world, but things have not changed that much."

He drew a breath. "It might seem like a womanly topic, but men are judged on appearance nearly every bit as much. We all have to wear clothes every day; when someone who cares about them is looking, it can't hurt to make them worth looking at."

He gestured back to the racks of clothing. "This week, I want you to pick something out that makes you feel like you have the upper hand. Something you'd wear to meet someone you needed to impress. Then come out and explain what you chose and why."

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Choose your clothes! Discuss your clothes! Do each other's hair and makeup!

The problem was, Kenzi didn't dress to impress as her; she dressed to impress as someone she wasn't. The last thing she wanted to be in and of herself was memorable. She liked Goth and there were lots of them around, it was an easy look to disappear in.

Soooo... who was she this time?

Lucrezia found herself in the vintage area, quite pleased that Lord Tyrion had thought to include options that were not simply modern. Several of these would do quite nicely, and her jewelry today was neutral enough to match most of them.

Normally Susan would say that this was sort of pointless. It was just that this was an astonishingly easy assignment for her. ~~Being as how she just did this very thing somewhere.~~

She gravitated right towards something black, a long dress that somehow made her look even taller in addition to the heeled boots that she found. It wasn't perfect, in her estimation, but it made her look suitably intimidating.

The thing was, Stephanie was still learning about dressing to blend in with more upscale scenarios; she wasn't born into money like Tim, or an official ward of Bruce's like Jason and Dick had been, and in point of fact had no actual civilian association with Bruce Wayne (in her world) other than being a kid who'd gotten a boarding-school scholarship courtesy of his company. One of them.

And when it came to dressing to feel like she had an advantage . . . well, comfort was her main thing, in the sense of being able to move easily as well as not feeling like she was out of place. The last thing she wanted was to get singled out for looking like she didn't fit in.

(She'd get the hang of it someday. She wasn't there yet.)

What she ended up going with was very working-class -- knee-length skirt suit (nothing too tight, since dressing like you might have to run for it at any given time was a survival skill you picked up in the poorer Gotham neighborhoods) and flats, nice-looking but not particularly expensive. That the ensemble happened to be in a nice dark aubergine scheme was a bonus.

Kenzi looked over at Stephanie and frowned. "Okay, so... dress normal? You think?"

She was holding a corset dress (http://celebritybio.net/Include/Image/Celebrity/Large/K/KseniaSolo.jpg) that she thought looked awesome, but was pretty sure Professor Lannister would classify as 'for sale.'

Stephanie shrugged. "Well . . . depends on who you want to impress, doesn't it? He didn't exactly say."

Watch her give that corset dress the big ol' side-eye, though.

"He wasn't specific enough," Kenzi complained, noting the side-eye, then pouting a little. "This would impress people at a video music awards show. Or one of those drugs-and-money parties in Toronto." But. SIGH. She put it back. "Not that I want to go to one of those again, so..." She looked at Stephanie's outfit, frowning in thought. "Maybe if I wear a blonde wig I can pull that off."

"Well, pfft." Stephanie clutched the hanger of the suit she was holding a little more tightly, as if to say nuh-uh, mine. "Maybe you really do want to impress people at a music awards show, and I'm trying to make a good entry-level job first impression. Why not go for it? Add a little variety to the class answers?"

Kenzi didn't want to get into a slap-fight over a dress for a school assignment when there were other options. She considered, and removed the dress again. "The trick is to stay on the side of the line of not-a-hooker. Or at least, way too expensive for anyone in the room. Hmmmmmmm."

. . . slap-fights were so undignified. Not that Stephanie was above undignified, precisely, but she might be above slap-fights.

Still, she bit her lip, uncomfortably. "Expensive? I won't be much help there."

Kenzi read that as 'I do not have money you want' and also 'that is slightly embarrassing to me' and immediately liked Stephanie a little more for both. "Oh, dude, you just have to know how to fake it." Now the dress was a challenge, right? "So, I could go with this (http://ksenia-solo.com/photos/albums/uploads/events/events%20in%202010/12-07%20-%20Blue%20Valentine%20New%20York%20Premiere/normal_MQ_006.jpg)," she pulled a red dress that was really damn cute out from the rack a little, "but it's too easy. You'd look good in this too. We'd just have to style your hair and do your make-up right. Plus the shoes. Shoes are important." She sighed in longing. "I miss shoe stores.... anyway. But with the corset-untie-me-dress... yeah. Everything else has to look like, like I could be wearing a First Lady dress. Ha."

"I don't know if red's my color," Stephanie tried to deflect, even though she had been known to look pretty good in it (shh). "But I guess that's a way of saying you know people are going to be looking at you and you're just fine with that, isn't it?"

Kenzi considered. "Yeah. Usually I wouldn't want to be noticed, but..." Sometimes it was good to be remembered the wrong way. Thus, wigs. She started rooting around for shoes to go with it, and looked up at Stephanie. "So what kind of entry-level job are you supposed to be applying for?"

"Hiding in plain sight, huh?" Stephanie speculated with a little grin. "If I think about it enough, that almost sounds like fun."

She tapped a finger against her lips as she considered the question.

"Oh, I don't know. Something completely boring. Tedious, repetitive data-entry work that sucks your soul?" In other words, totally the opposite of what she really wanted, but who put out ads for that sort of thing anyway?

Don't answer that.

"Dude, I hope you're there to spy on someone or steal something or maybe just to use their windows to take pictures of someone doing bad stuff in the car park," Kenzi said, pulling out a pair of Louboutins (http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/catalog/prod.jhtml?itemId=prod133790034&parentId=cat39620738&masterId=cat5130731&index=3&cmCat=cat000000cat000141cat000149cat000199cat5130731cat39620738&isEditorial=false) and giving her a wide-eyed look. "Otherwise..." She made a little gagging sound.

Okay, now Stephanie was just going to stare at her. And maybe wonder about her a little.

Okay, a lot.

. . . even though that sounded like a really good idea, and she'd keep it in mind.

"Oh my god, are you out of your mind?" she yelped. "Why would I go looking for trouble like that?"

Because it was what you did, Steph. Duh.

"Data entry?!" Kenzi said, as if to say marburg's virus! Ebola! "Why would anyone do that unless they're a geeeek that loves numbers? Which, more power to them, I'd kill someone with a stapler on my second day," Kenzi said cheerfully, wiggling into sheer hose, then sticking her feet into the shoes. "Not me, baby. Anything but that. Or fast food, bleeeeah."

"If it's the only thing between me and eviction, I'll take it," Stephanie countered, a mite testily. Not that she'd ever been in that situation while she was old enough to worry about it, and with Mom on an even keel now and no shortage of work for ER nurses in Gotham City it wasn't a current concern, but the Brown household had come close a few times. Thanks, Dad. "I'd just have to learn to make the most of it."

A beat.

"I could probably spy on my coworkers' cubicles in my spare time, if I got really bored . . ."

"There you go," Kenzi said, standing up, and starting to wriggle into the dress. "Enh. Eviction. There's always still time to find another place. You just have to know which squats have water, you know?" Stephanie was more like her more distant cousins: solid citizens, doing their damnedest to get by in the system. There was a reason those guys were distant, though. "Don't get too attached to any one address, and things go smoother."

Those words coming from someone now wearing a $10,000 dress and $1,000 shoes, probably had an element to the bizarre to them.

Whyyyyyyyyy do I have a feeling she should never ever ever ever EVER EVER meet Selina Kyle?

Stephanie could have been put off by that, or offended, but in a weird sort of way, she kind of liked Kenzi. (Bruce would probably frown at her, but he wasn't here to do that -- oh god Steph STOP PICTURING IT!)

"If that ever becomes an issue, I'll keep that in mind," she promised, chuckling a little despite herself.

Because they would so be best buddies in five minutes. As for Bruce, Kenzi was now thoroughly intimidated by the guy, and didn't get why other people weren't-- the version here strangled lizard-wolves and was scarily intense on occasion. And was way too rich to be judging Kenzi's choices, if it came down to it.

"You never know," Kenzi said, flashing Stephanie a grin. "Want help with the make-up? Are we going for demure-and-professional, granola, or here-to-seduce-your-boss?"

Seriously, Cassandra was probably sighing right now.

Stephanie, though? Going all bug-eyed.

"Ohmygod so many kinds of no on the last one," she blurted out. "How far can we swerve away from demure and keep it professional?"

Re: Dressing Area - Girls [9/19]

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Re: Dressing Area - Girls [9/19]

batwaffles.livejournal.com - 2011-09-19 22:21 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Dressing Area - Girls [9/19]

regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com - 2011-09-19 22:40 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Dressing Area - Girls [9/19]

batwaffles.livejournal.com - 2011-09-20 00:03 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Dressing Area - Girls [9/19]

regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com - 2011-09-20 00:38 (UTC) - Expand

Say "dress to impress" to Claudia, and she immediately thought of both Scully and Myka. Which would be why she was trying on sharply cut black pantsuits.

"Damn," she muttered, as she pulled on yet another blazer that fit through the shoulders yet sagged in the front. "I guess they must get theirs tailored."

Most of the clothes and fabrics were causing Surreal distress, as there wasn't a single thing she recognized. As was evidenced by what she wore to class every day, she was a corset-and-leather-pants type of witch.

She seized upon one tunic (http://www.cbazaar.com/readymade-salwars/cotton-salwar-suits/opulent-dual-tone-anarkali-churidar-p-slkkia1125.html) that would be fashionable during summers in Hayall, and was tempted to pull it on over her current pants until a flash of chiffon and silk caught her eye.

Bingo.

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