Burg: Day 8

"Sure thing," Xandria said, snagging her shirt and pulling it on before she lifted herself out of the water. It was always strange when her skin changed; it almost felt like it was slithering off of her. "Might as well start working on this place now. The more we wait, the more difficult it will be. Think we can clean out everything we need from the library tonight?"

Day 8
Burg

"Well, we were just going to grab some of the bean bag chairs and stuff like that, right? Yeah, I think we could easily do that tonight. Unless there's something else that I'm forgetting...."

Burg: Day 8

"I don't think so," Xandria said, ringing out her shirt. The wet against her skin kept her in a strange mid-mutation form, and it irked her. She needed to buy towels!

"Oh, there's some candles and food, too, that should come, and any books that we might want, in case we get bored," Xandria laughed. "At some point we need to figure out a more permanent entrance than the underground one. We can unlock some doors to move larger stuff through, but on the whole, I think it would be best if we kept the outer appearance of this place untouched."

The two women made their way back into the basement and out onto the street. It was balmy out, but the streets were deserted. They gathered up everything they could think of from the library, closing and locking the doors behind them, then trundling down the streets, loaded down with their stolen prizes. It wasn't until they were nearly back to the aquarium that it occurred to Xandria to feel bad about it. She immediately felt guilty, not for plundering the library, but for doing it without thought. It was almost as if crime was starting to become second nature to her.

They unloaded their things in the jellyfish room. The floor was wide and open, but there were little nooks around the edges of the room, making it a good reading room. After they finished, Xandria flopped into one of the bean bags and sighed.

"I hate to bring this up, especially after we just carted all this stuff around, but...I do need some clothes. Idon't exactly feel comfortable trying to go shopping in daylight, and you mentioned something about some stores? Would you mind taking me there?"

Day 8
Burg

Irene nodded. "Like I said, it's a couple of miles away... but I'm fine with that." Irene gestured with her head in the right direction, and started heading over. Somehow, the trip seemed shorter this time around--maybe because she'd already been this way once, or maybe because she had someone to make the trip with her, to talk to--if she so chose. Regardless, she wasn't going to complain.

Finally, they arrived back at the stores, where Irene had been living just a couple of days ago. She gestured to one side of the street and told her, "Quite a few of the stores over there sell... sold clothes. I don't know how much is left with everyone else already looting, but...." She shrugged. "It's worth a shot."

As she mentioned this to Xandria, she stole a cautious glance down the street, to the toy store she used to be living in. She noticed that it looked back to normal; all of the work she'd put into making it look decrepit had been undone. Not that she minded anymore, given that she had a new place to live, but still... it proved her theory. Her illusions didn't maintain themselves if she stopped focusing on them, or... maybe even if she went too far away.

Burg: Day 8

"Nice," Xandria said, looking around. "Let's see if anyone's broken in yet. No point in breaking more glass if we don't have to. And from what you've told me, I'm fairly sure there's a decent chance that we'll find a nice spot. Hopefully it will be in the right stores."

Xandria wandered around the lot for a few minutes, then finally headed toward the largest clothing retailer in the lot. The front windows had been smashed, so all the girls had to do was walk in.

"Let's not even bother with the first floor," Xandria said, looking around at the disarray. "Let's get upstairs and see what we can find."

Day 8
Burg

Xandria was right to skip the first floor--at a glance, the only things left were in pretty sad shape. Upstairs, there were still clear signs of looters, but at least there was still merchandise to be found. She glanced at Xandria. "I'd offer to split up so we can look around, but I'm not really sure what we're looking for." Or of Xandria's size, for that matter, and Irene couldn't work up the nerve to ask....

Day 8: Burg

"Well...I'm not really sure what I'm looking for," Xandria admitted. "But then, I don't have any clothing at all, so I guess most anything would work. But what about you? Aren't you going--"

Xandria stopped. Irene had mentioned that she could do clothing illusions. Did that mean she didn't need to get a closet?

"Oooh, cocktail dresses!" Xandria exclaimed, darting over to the relatively untouched section. She soon saw why: the ceiling had begun to cave in over the far side of the sports section, directly above the stopped escalators. The crumbling structure had probably scared away looters, and Irene and Xandria had missed it since they came up the side stairs.

"This is perfect," she purred. "As long as no one decides to go for a run along the roof."

Day 8
Burg

"If they did, I'd shove them off myself." Irene muttered. Not really, but... this hypothetical someone didn't need to know that, right? She shook it off. "Hey, if you want to look at the dresses, I can look around for other things--T-shirts, jeans, things like that. We can compare what we have after we find a few things, see what's worth keeping." Admittedly, Irene didn't like the idea of going under the unstable roof, not for clothes. She wouldn't talk Xandria out of it, since that was her choice... but she would avoid going under it herself.

Day 8: Burg

"Sure," Xandria nodded, heading into the section. A plan was starting to form in her mind. The more she thought about it, the more she liked it. Sure, she couldn't let people know about her powers, and it would not be in her favor if anyone really recognized her, but she was an incredibly strong woman, naturally. Her powers only made her stronger. If she could harness them properly, well, she could make quite a difference. But to do that, she needed to learn to do one thing that Allee, her mom, or her publicist Mishka had usually done for her: make her into a full package. She sorted through the racks quickly, looking for dresses of various lengths, all of which would appropriately show off her physique. She needed a variety of colors, too, a couple LBDs, but not so much that it would be a pain to haul it all back to the aquarium. Eventually, she would need to create some sort of closet to keep it all in.

After going through the section, Xandria wandered back to the pile she had tossed together. It was clearly too much. She had to thin it down. She sat for a little while, thinking and trying to remember what sort of clothes Mishka had put her in for dinners and fancy stuff. She never understood why Mishka had refused to allow her to wear neon colors, but there was obviously something bad about them, so she wouldn't take any of those. Pastels were ok, but Mishka had always used them sparingly. Xandria set aside a light blue that nearly bordered on neon and a peach dress, then discarded the rest of the pastels. A maroon dress, a dark blue, and a purple dress joined the neon and the peach, and were shortly followed by a black and white, a grey, and a tan dress. Two black dresses rounded it out.

Xandria debated if she should keep the hangers or not, but decided against it, as she had already taken two more dresses than she had originally planned. Gathering them up in her arms, she made her way to the nearest checkout area and triple bagged them, then, leaving them at the counter, when to find Irene.

"You find anything good?" she called, walking toward her friend (were they friends? She wasn't quite sure). "I got some things, and I might have found a couple dresses that would be pretty on you, too, if you want to take a look at them."

Day 8
Burg

"Well, it depends on what you mean by 'good'." Irene admitted, lugging over a small pile of her own. Mostly, what she'd grabbed were T-shirts and pants like jeans and khakis--anything she'd thought looked durable. She'd pretty much ignored all sense of color, though she'd gravitated towards blues, greens, and yellows--mostly because she liked those colors. She put her pile down, took one look at Xandria's, and blushed; the difference was a bit... striking. "Yeah... I never said I knew anything about fashion."

Day 8: Burg

"Neither did I," Xandria giggled. "I've had people dressing me for so long I've kind of forgotten what it is like to put a wardrobe together. Hopefully Mishka had good style sense, because I'm basing everything I'm choosing right now on her way of putting together a wardrobe."

Day 8
Burg

"Mishka?" Irene was confused for a few seconds; had Xandria mentioned this woman before? Should Irene know who it was? Or... was it a friend of Xandria's, and it wasn't really any of Irene's business? Irene quickly leaned over the nearest counter and grabbed a couple of bags, hoping Xandria wouldn't notice her expressions shifting with all her second-guessing.

Day 8: Burg

"Sorry," Xandria immediately felt bad. She'd spoken completely on her own train of thought. "Mishka was my publicist. One of the things she did was she was constantly vetting my wardrobe and telling me what not to wear. She was slightly eccentric, but always had a good sense of what would make the best impression and how to best present yourself."

She was quiet for a few seconds, then gave a curt little nod.

"So, what did you find?"

Day 8
Burg

"Oh, okay." Irene hadn't really thought of Xandria having a publicist. Yeah, she'd mentioned that she was a swimmer, and... well, Irene just had never really thought about it. Xandria seemed too normal, mermaid mutations aside, to be the kind of person who had... used to have a publicist.

She shook it off and showed Xandria some of her "finds". "I went after practical things." Irene admitted. She realized how that might sound, and backpedaled, "I mean, like I said, no sense of fashion, so I was mainly looking for anything that seemed like it could last. And looked like it would fit." She paused, then added, "But... maybe you should try a couple on first, just in case."

Day 8: Burg

Xandria nodded, and began sorting through the pile. She wasn't a huge fan of jeans, but she knew that they would be important, and would last, so she grabbed a pair of boot cuts in her size and slipped them on. They fit, so she tossed them aside and continued through the pile. Sweat pants, yes, definitely. She continued to sort through the pile, finding a few pairs of yoga pants, which she immediately claimed, and one pair of white stretch denim.

"Those all work," she nodded, turning to examine the shirts. "Which ones are you taking?"