Pixie Dust, Friday

[ashockingbitch]

Jenny was a little surprised to find her key still worked when she showed up on Friday morning, but since it did, she set about tidying the shop and moving out the new stock and things. It seemed to need it.

She also found a few things for the 'burn' pile, including some spandex, so that cheered her up.

Pixie Dust is open.

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[bitten_notshy]

Jack had been meaning to get more modern clothes for some time, and he was pleased on his walk through town to notice what seemed to be the nicest store was open.

He wandered in, nodded to the pretty clerk and started slowly looking through the racks. He could tell some things were well-made, and shirts and pants were at least similar to what they had been in 1899, but there were still enough differences that he was a bit at sea.

"Hello," he finally called to the girl. "Would you have any recommendations?"

[ashockingbitch]

Jenny leaned on the counter and asked him, "What did you have in mind?" She looked him over and added, "Victorian?"

[bitten_notshy]

"Just a few pieces of simple, modern clothes that would work well for classes. Nothing too sloppy; I like looking neat." Jack hesitated, fingering a silky shirt for the feel of it.

"Victorian. Is that what 1899 would be?"

His queen was called Alexandria Victoria thank you, AU of doom, but he doubted it was a coincidence.

[ashockingbitch]

"Yes," Jenny confirmed. "Well, trousers haven't changed very much, really, but there are blue jeans." She gestured toward those. "There are several different cuts; you might have to try on a few pair to find the ones you like best. T-shirts," she gestured to her own, which had the Union Jack on it, natch, "are bog standard for our age group, but I'm wondering if you might find the look a bit too casual?"

[bitten_notshy]

"The fastening is different," Jack observed, pulling a pair of jeans off the racks and inspecting the zipper. It wasn't exactly complicated to figure out.

"I can wear t-shirts," he added, moving toward a rack of those. "I like the kind with collars" -- polo shirts, which offered the added advantage of covering Jack's bite marks more thoroughly -- "a bit better, but the plainer ones don't look wrong to me, just very casual."

He smiled at her shirt. "I'll take a wild guess you're British?"

[ashockingbitch]

"It's called a zipper. Much easier to manage when you're drunk. They also come with a button fly," Jenny said, coming around the counter to fetch a pair to show him.

"The polo shirts? Well, they're a bit prep, but if that's your style far be it from me to knock it. We have about five trillion colors, as you can see. Not all of them are found in nature." Jenny eyed a particularly bright chartreuse one. It was so getting burned. "Also, stripes."

One corner of her mouth turned up. "Don't tell me, the accent gave me away."

[bitten_notshy]

"Is prep good or bad?" Jack asked. He pulled polo shirts in blue, red and a dark green off the racks, then waivered over a purplish one. "It might be my style. I don't have a style here yet."

Glancing up, he grinned at her. "I'm canny that way. I'm Jack. One of the new ones."

[ashockingbitch]

She didn't quite smile, but she didn't quite glare at him like something she'd scraped off her shoe, either, which was pretty good for her. "Jenny. One of the old ones." She leaned one shoulder against a rack and said, "Prep. Preppy. In the fashion of one attending a preparatory school. Which we kind of are, actually, but most of us aren't rich and snobby." Jenny was just snobby. "Whether it's good or bad depends on what you're going for, really. You're used to things being more tailored, so." She shrugged. "Makes sense, I guess."

[bitten_notshy]

"I don't object to being taken for rich or snobbish," Jack decided, picking yet another shirt off the racks and a few pairs of jeans. "It may be impolite to say this but if someone writes me off as either, that's their problem, not mine."

And, anyhow, he had an image to keep up.

"Is there a fitting room?"

[ashockingbitch]

"I like that about you," Jenny said. "And yes, it's right over there," she added, gesturing with her cigarette.

[bitten_notshy]

"Thank you," Jack said, to the compliment as well as the directions. He emerged a few moments later, attired neatly in a fitted crimson polo shirt and dark khaki trousers. "I can't decide if I should tuck it in or not," he groused. "Do you get a lot of the chronologically impaired in here for your guidance, Jenny?"

[ashockingbitch]

"Every now and again," she said. "Leave it untucked, I think. I'm one hundred and two, so I cope with it pretty well, I think. Having actually lived through multiple time periods and all. When I was born you'd never have thought there'd be miniskirts." But thank God for them.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack paused, a little stiffly, in the act of resmoothing his untucked shirt. "You look well for your age," he said. "And I say that as someone who should be 127."

More delicately, he added, "Are you of the blood?"

If she was going to brag of extreme age to Jack, vampirism was a logical conclusion, though something she was sharing rather freely.

[ashockingbitch]

Jenny didn't think of it so much as bragging as stating a simple fact. "Of what blood? I'm not a noble, if that's your meaning. I'm Jenny Sparks."

[bitten_notshy]

"It wasn't. It's ..." Oh, he was going to feel silly, but lying seemed pointless.

"You would know if the answer was yes. It's a polite way of asking if someone's a vampire."

[ashockingbitch]

"Oh. No. I'm just me." This was unhelpful, she realized so she added, "I've been called the spirit of the twentieth century."

[bitten_notshy]

"I have even less idea what that means," Jack said, almost apologetic. She didn't seem as though the vampire question had bothered her, so he didn't offer an apology beyond what his tone would suggest. "You can't die or age?"

[ashockingbitch]

"Oh, no, I can die." Aging was more problematic. She was doing that currently, but was she going to stop at some point, was the question.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack frowned slightly, taking this in. "How do you get to be a spirit of a century, though?"

He was at a total disadvantage. It didn't happen often, and he didn't much like it when it did.

[ashockingbitch]

Jenny looked at him like she might think he was a bit dim. "I was born to it. January first, 1900. Midnight."

[bitten_notshy]

"... oh." No, it still didn't make sense, but Jack didn't especially want to encourage the look Jenny was giving him. "I don't think that's something we have at home, but I suppose I won't know for sure for another seven months."