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Demon Marcus, Tuesday

Anders had planned to suffer through in his robes until he could find a job, but a few days of warm weather put an end to that plan. He was in his linen undertunic and a pair of too-loose denim trousers borrowed from the common room lost-and-found as he met Eleanor at the clothing store to take her up on her offer of a shopping trip. The trousers chafed his legs uncomfortably, but he assumed one got used to them.

The store was completely overwhelming for a Fereldan. He'd seen suits of armor for sale, and a handful of premade gowns, but nothing like this: One rack of shirts held more variety in color and cut than he'd seen in four years at the Circle.

"We don't have anything like this at home," he admitted. "Where should we start?"

[OOC: Mainly for Eleanor but can also be used for other shopping/Anders needs!]

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"The inexpensive items," Eleanor said with assurance. "Better to have twenty shirts that fit and look acceptable than one nice outfit you need to launder on a daily basis."

Or wore until it started reeking. Neither of those options were very good.

She walked purposefully through the racks, as though she were an old hand at this. She'd only gone shopping like this once before, and she'd been on the receiving end of the advice that time, but she'd paid attention, truly.

"First, though, are there any concerns you have that I ought to know about? Have you objections to short sleeves or trousers that end above the knee? I have a friend who still feels immodest when her calves are showing. Which is perfectly fine, but it'll affect our search."

"Nothing like that," Anders said, scratching behind one ear. "But I'd like to stay close to the things we wear at home -- jackets and boots and such. Not that there's anything wrong with the fashions here, but I'm not ready to switch over completely quite yet." Also, it had taken him an unseemly amount of time to figure out how to do up the zipper on his borrowed trousers, but that seemed like more information than Eleanor needed.

A pause.

"We don't have to find more robes, though. I never liked wearing a dress. And since it's your money - at least for now -- I'll take your advice on quantity over quality."

[OOC: After I found a PB who both looks like Anders AND is wearing a period costume, it seems a shame to waste it ;-).]

Eleanor looked him over, then nodded. "No use wearing something you're not comfortable in," she agreed. "I'm sure we can find something simple that still fits your tastes."

Though she was looking less now at denim trousers and more at cotton lightweight slacks. Surely there would be some period-looking linen blouses, as well? She flipped through the racks as she continued talking.

"I went for quantity over quality because I was building an entire wardrobe from scratch," she explained. "I arrived with nothing but a shift, in the dead of winter. Also, my funds are at your disposal, but they're limited. If you find one shirt that you simply must own -- so much so that you don't mind the frequent laundering -- that's better than a package of tee shirts you would detest."

(NO WASTING THE CUTE PB!)

"I'll manage the washing," Anders promised, more because it seemed like the thing to say than because he had the first notion how to accomplish it.

His attention was drawn to a rack of lightweight shirts with banded collars, and he held a blue one ~~that did not cost quite as much~~ up in front of himself. "What do you think? And why were you wandering about in winter in your shift, anyhow?"

"I like that," she nodded, reaching out to feel the material. "Nice and light, so it won't weigh you down in the summer. Hold on to it, and you can try it on when we have enough gathered together. If it works, might as well pick up a few of them at once."

The clothing store being interdimensional surely meant there had to be some clothing from older times, didn't it? Not just the badly-made Halloween costumes, but a few bits here and there. She frowned as she searched the racks.

"I ran away," she said, almost as an afterthought. "I saw a portal and leaped through. I had nothing with me but my diving suit. I didn't know where it would lead, but anywhere was better than there."

"So we have that in common," Anders surmised. He kept the blue shirt and reached for a few similar ones in different colors -- black, white, red. "Funny. Do you think the school knew that when they paired us up, or is it chance?"

"I favor coincidence," Eleanor mused. "My own big sibling wasn't a runaway, but she was well-equipped to handle my initial panic. I thought ... I was worried that this place was unsafe, or too much like where I'd left. It took me a while before I stopped looking over my shoulder."

In case any of that was applicable to his situation, as well.

"When you said jacket," she asked, "did you mean a doublet (http://www.tudorshoppe.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=LL-RD&Category_Code=DJ)?" She tugged one out of the rack and held it out for him to see.

"I'm still half expecting this to be a trap," Anders admitted, with a little laugh. "Though if it's a trap, I may as well enjoy it until they drag me back."

He looked over the garment she was holding up carefully. "It's close, though the ones I had at home are longer. But maybe not in velvet,if it's for summer. Something like this would suit me well."

They were plainer than his ideal, but that was fine (and less likely to empty Eleanor's purse before he even picked out any trousers.) He could magic on some feathers, or something.

"If they do drag you back," Eleanor said, "leave a trail of breadcrumbs so we can make a proper rescue."

Hopefully, the same would apply should Mother ever appear her and lure her away. Though she was less scared of locked doors now that she could teleport.

"Very nice," she said. "Much more suited to summer than velvet would be. I found a few more underlayer shirts (http://www.medievalcollectibles.com/p-5524-early-renaissance-shirt.aspx), if you're interested."

"You're assuming I'd let them take me alive," Anders said, though his tone suggested he was kidding -- and he was. Mostly. There was a way in which he meant it, too.

"And those are nice," he said appreciatively, running a hand over the linen. He pursed his lips as he tried to decide what style he preferred. "How do people ever make up their minds when this store has so many things in it?"

"It helps to try them on," Eleanor said. "One of them might itch or fit strangely across your shoulders. Have I mentioned the dressing rooms yet?"

His clothing seemed from an earlier era, and he didn't seem used to stores like this one. He may not know that such things even existed.

"Barring that, you find too many things you like and empty your wallet," she added, mischievously.

"Oh, so these aren't tailored to fit you?" Anders asked. "in that case, I can see why one would want to try them on."

"And," he added, equally mischievously, "it'd be your wallet I'd be emptying today, wouldn't it?"

"The joke is on you," Eleanor laughed. "My wallet's already rather thin."

Not so bad as that. She'd been saving money from her job, though she did spend a bit of it on frivolities now and then.

"We've left the era of individual tailoring and entered mass-production," she explained. "They run the clothes in marked sizes, and you have to discover which size fits you. Which may vary from brand to brand, just to make the process more confusing."

"Don't you know you were obligated to be rich?" Anders asked, with a teasing sigh. He hadn't actually intended to get more than three or four shirts and some pants, just enough to get him through a week.

He squinted at a nearby rack of clothes. "And I suppose the XS-S-M ion the tags have something to do with those sizes."

"My obligation does not appear to have matched my reality," she said lightly. "Perhaps whoever was supposed to supply me with infinite wealth has forgotten to notify me of that fact."

She nodded, quickly, reaching for the nearest shirt so she could find the letters on the tag. "Small, Medium, Large," she explained. "Some clothing has numeric sizes, though it's unclear what the numbers correlate to. X is a modifier, used to mean 'extra.' It can be placed on either 'small' or 'large' and can often stack, such as X-X-S or X-X-X-L. I would say, try medium and see what adjustments are needed from there."

She flipped the tag up and held it out to him. "Washing instructions," she said. "If you're machine-washing your clothes."

Anders listened closely, sorting through the clothes he liked to find things with the little M on the label. It seemed about right; he was neither unusually large nor likely to be mistaken for a dwarf. "There are machines to do your washing?"

This was Very Exciting, and made it far less likely Anders would wear his clothes until they stood up on their own.

He read the label on one embroidered shirt more closely. "And ... something called dry cleaning."

"There are," Eleanor said brightly. "They're in the basement ~~I think~~ of the school. I'll show you how to operate them, if you like. You pile them together and toss them in with a little soap, then you move them to the other machine to dry them off. But you have to separate the darks from the lights, or all the colors start to bleed together."

She frowned at the label. "I don't remember the chemicals used in dry cleaning," she said, apologetically, "but that's going to require finding somewhere special to clean it. I'd recommend bypassing anything like that."

"I'll stick to the ones that go in machines," Anders agreed with a nod. He put the dry clean only shirt firmly back on its rack. "There's so much to learn. Was any of this as confusing for you when you got here as it is for me?"

"The clothing, not as much," she said, allowing a faint smile. "I'm only from around fifty years in the past. The gadgetry has changed far more than you can imagine would happen in fifty years, however. And I still haven't gotten used to sunlight. I think we all have very different ideas of normality before coming here."

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Demon Marcus, Tuesday

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