fandomtownies | The Imperial Brim, [Thursday, June 11]

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The Imperial Brim, [Thursday, June 11]

It was the grand opening of Imperial Brim and Irulan felt excitement and anxiousness war inside her. She rearranged the hat on the shelf before stepping back.

"Are you sure the refreshments are in order?" She asked her servant again.

"It is all in order, princess."

Irulan made a final circuit around the shop and once again fixed the Atreides banner. She was delaying, Irulan stepped back, took a deep breath and clasped her hands together.

"Open the doors," Irulan ordered.

The Imperial Brim was finally open.

(The hat shop is finally open! Food and drinks and odd hats this way!)
(OCD is up!)

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Irulan is by the door, a calm smile on her face.

Fiona came, as she'd promised.

"Hello?" came the greeting again, peering through the shop. She had honestly never seen so many hats.

"Fiona," Irulan said, greeting her. "Please, enter."

She entered happily, giving Irulan a smile. It was starting to be genuine as she did it.

"Thank you."

"I'm glad you stopped by," Irulan gestured to the refreshments, "we have refreshments if you're thirsty?"

She shook her head.

"No, thank you."

She bit her lip, considering her options. She could tell the woman right now, which would hopefully keep her from being offended, but might make things weird. Or she could keep it quiet until they knew each other a little better.

Then again, she was Leto's step-mother. She didn't think Leto would share the information, but she couldn't see where it would hurt. And she'd been here; she knew people could be different without it being bad.

"I don't generally eat or drink. I'm not sick. It's just... not necessary. And somewhat uncomfortable."

To take in food and feel no pleasure from it made the process almost painful, and definitely irritating. Also, it always made her feel unpleasantly full.

No, she preferred not to eat if she could.

"But again, thank you."

Irulan took in this revelation with a tilt of the head and a brief raising of the eyebrow.

"You don't take food or drink? How does your body take in nourishment?" Irulan inquired. The scholar within, interested. Unlike the Bene Gesserit she did not hold a prejudiced view against people who were different. Her raising her stepchildren was proof of that.

"It doesn't. It can, now. But its unnecessary. I almost died but, um, we fixed it."

Eliot, herself, her mother, her aunt, and the apple.

"Almost died?" There was a tone of alarm in her voice. "Are you better now, Fiona?"

"We fixed it."

Her mother, her aunt, herself, Eliot, and the Golden Apple of Immortality.

"I'm fine now. Thank you."

Irulan could sense a story behind the words but she didn't pry. It was her own secret to tell. Irulan knew the necessity of secrets.

"I'm glad," she said honestly. She waved to her hats, "Are there any head pieces that interests you, Fiona?"

She was so glad Irulan was leaving it at that. She felt like enough of a freak as it was.

"I like this one (http://www.lockhatters.co.uk/Autumn_Winter-Sweet_Sue-P314.aspx)," she said after a moment, reaching over to press her fingers to the brim, "though... do you think it would look nice on me?"

She looked at the chosen hat. Irulan smiled, "It would look lovely on you." Irulan gestured to her servant and her servant approached with a mirror. "Why don't you try it on?"

She walked over to the mirror and reached out her hand for the hat.

Once it was on her head, she had to admit: she thought it looked rather cute.

"There," Irulan said, almost but not quite beaming. "I think that's a perfect fit." She looked at Fiona and came to a decision. "You need not pay for this one, Fiona. You are my first customer and as the first, you deserve a prize!"

She grinned and turned to show the hat at a few different angles.

"All right, but I'll have to get another one. I want to give you a first sale."

"Who am I to argue with a customer?" Irulan waved towards the hats. "All you need do is choose."

"What do you think might look nice?" she asked, peering around. She figured that Irulan might pick something she wouldn't.

A dangerous thing to ask since Irulan's tastes tend to be... very different.

Irulan picked up one hat (http://www.lockhatters.co.uk/Autumn_Winter-Rainbow-P317.aspx). "Would you be partial to this hat, Fiona?"

She looked at the hat for a moment before holding her hand out.

"Let me try it on?"

She passed the hat to Fiona, gestured once more to the servant and waited for Fiona's judgment.

She put the hat on her head and turned this way and that. It seemed a little big for her, but she had to admit it had a certain charm.

"What do you think?" she asked, turning to Irulan.

She almost asked if she thought Leto would like it, but managed not to. Just barely.

"I find it very charming on you," Irulan said in a pleased tone. She tilted her head a little, "Although," she shifted slightly until she held another hat that looked the same as the one Fiona wore. "Try this, I think it would fit nicely than the one you're wearing."

She nodded and took off the hate she wore to try on the one that Irulan was holding. She turned again and had to admit that she was right.

"This is a better fit," she had to agree, her fingers sliding along the side of the hat. She liked the feel of it too.

"Ah, now," Irulan stepped back. "I think we have it." The hat actually reminded her of some of the headpieces Lady Jessica and Alia liked to wear.

She smiled again.

"I think we do. Which leaves me with two hats. Which sounds like a good number to start with."

Though she liked how they looked on her. She'd probably be back.

"It is a good number to start with," she said with an entirely too pleased a tone. If her mentor was still alive she would probably reprimand Irulan for being transparent.

Irulan may or may not actually be envisioning a dream wherein everyone in the island wore hats and after that, possibly the world. She said none of these things, what Irulan did say was: "My collection started with only one head piece and from there it grew."

She grinned.

"Do you have a hat like that here?"

She was curious as to what would be the first one.

Irulan recalled if there was such a hat here, then. "Yes, I do." She made a circuit of the shop, took something from a cabinet before returning to Fiona with the Lady Jessica's headpiece (http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj311/grimorie/irulan/atreides_hat-1.jpg). "It is not exactly the same but your hat does remind me of this."

She passed the headpiece to Fiona.

She looked at it for a moment, considering some of the similarities between it and different headdresses used by a variety of different cultures. She couldn't pinpoint it, but she kept the image in her mind.

"Utilitarian," she noted before holding it for Irulan to take back.

She received the headdress and smiled wryly, "It is. I forgot this headdress was Fremen in origin."

"Oh?" she asked curiously. After all, Leto had told her some things about the Fremen, but nothing close to all.

"The Fremen are very... practical people. Warriors all, they have not led a soft life but the harshness of their environment made them strong. This attitude has bled into all aspects of their lives." Unknown to Irulan, she had taken on a lecturing tone. It was an unconscious thing she does and one she can't really help. She was a scholar and a historian aside from being a princess.

She nodded.

"One of Leto's compliments involved commentary on how deadly I was," she said with a small smile.

Edited 2009-06-12 15:58 (UTC)

"To a Fremen that is high praise," Irulan said and she sensed a hint of tendre in Fiona's voice when she spoke of Leto. Curious.

"Which was what he told me when I asked," she admitted as she took the hat off of her head and held it out to the servant. She knew that hatboxes existed, after all, and assumed that they would be used to carry her hats.

There was also a touch of a blush on her cheeks.

"He's a very good friend," and she wasn't adding anything to the meaning in a romantic sense, but it was obvious that she genuinely cared for him and appreciated his presence in her life.

They were a little more than friends, of course, but in this moment, that wasn't the important part.

The servant took the hats with a box and proceeded to wrap them in their respective hatboxes.

Irulan meanwhile is finding it very hard not to pry. She did made a note to speak to Leto about Fiona and stamped down hard on visions of grandchildren. Fiona, was after all, still studying. But perhaps...

"I'm sure you deserve the compliment, my dear," she said briefly touching Fiona's hand. "And I am glad, very glad to know Leto's good friend."

She wondered what, if anything, she should tell this woman about herself. Finally, for the moment, she decided to stick to the niceties and explain when necessary. It had worked well so far, after all.

She blushed, however, and couldn't think of what to say. Her shyness was coming out at the worst possible time.

There are hats for ladies (http://www.lockhatters.co.uk/Spring_Summer-c53.aspx), for the gentlemen (http://www.lockhatters.co.uk/Sport_Felts-c24.aspx) and some of Irulan's favorites (http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/56636911/11888949).

Irulan prepared a few refreshments and finger food for this auspicious occasion.

Hee!

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The Imperial Brim, [Thursday, June 11]

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Hat shopping

The food table

OOC