tenuefarfalla | Red Shift inbox

You've got a lot of opinions about like fashion and clothes and stuff, right?

[ Ben may have only seen her in various sort of running outfits (that's what he thinks of them as) but she is always SO well put-together. ]

I LOVE clothes.

Does that sound really shallow?

I don't care. I love clothes.

[ Ben has only ever seen her ready to do lab and/or kitchen work, or preparing to run (for her life or for pleasure), so he has no idea the extent to which she adores fashion. And yet, his instinct is perfectly spot on. He's insanely observant like that. ]

It doesn't sound shallow at all.
Not like you're saying you judge everything about a person based on what they wear.
You just like clothes. Which I could kinda tell. Which isn't a bad thing.

[ A pause before: ]

I don't know a whole lot about picking clothes. We all had the same uniforms growing up.

[ You know, to go along with the general dehumanization and all. ]

My sister showed up and she's been talking about, like, giving me a makeover.

[ He's winding his way towards the point gradually. ]

[ The more Ben says, the more excited Cho gets. It's a nice feeling, to be excited over something. She's smiling, and nothing is forced and nothing feels bad and sharp and broken. There's just so much good stuff. Ben's sister is here! That's amazing! She wants to give him a makeover. That's also amazing! One decidedly less so than the other, of course, but she can be happy about lots of things to varying degrees. She's not going to turn away any happiness that comes knocking right now.

Cho is curled up in a ball on her bed, knees hugged to her chest, biting her lip while she stares at the screen and hopes for the text that will ask her if she wants to help out. ]

That sounds like so much fun. Not that a little black number isn't extremely timeless, but there's always room for a bit of polishing of the personal image, right?

That's pretty much what she said.
With a bit more mocking in there. (The good kind).
You two would probably get along super well, actually. I should introduce you later.

But the thing I was gonna ask is:
Can you, like, be my second opinion on stuff?
Like if she suggests outfits or colors I should wear or whatever?
Can you make sure I don't look... pretentious or stupid or wrong?

I would be honoured.

[ It doesn't occur to her to worry that that might come across as sarcastic. She means it. She feels very special that Ben wants her to meet his sister, that he trusts her taste enough to have her be his second opinion. What she thinks counts for something to him. That's an honour, in her book. ]

Is her taste usually eccentric?

You're sure you don't mind?

[ Ben really doesn't want to impose, and he knows that Cho is polite enough that she might be agreeing, and even overselling her enthusiasm, just because she feels like she ought to be willing to do this as his friend or whatever. So he just... double-checks. ]

I mean definitely not compared to my brother Klaus.
I don't really know a whole lot about fashion obviously
But all the magazines seem to think she dresses really well?

[ Might wanna explain that one, Ben? ]

Of course not! You're my friend and it sounds fun. I would love to be your second opinion.

[ In the absence of an explanation, Cho will come to the most logical, and in this case very incorrect conclusion. ]

Does she take a lot of those magazine fashion quizzes?

[ Cho is not judging, but she's hoping that Ben's sister is like Jessica in this regard - a very intelligent woman with varied interests who just happens to also read the silly magazines at the check out counter. ]

[ His friend!!! Ben knows that Cho is his friend, of course he knows that, but it still gives him a little spark of happiness, hearing it and reading it. He wonders if that feeling ever goes away. ]

Great, thank you so much.

[ Cho's next question confuses him for a few moments until he realizes he'd left out some crucial info there. ]

Oh, no! I meant like in the articles about her.
She's like this big-deal Hollywood actress so people are always following her around with cameras and talking about her style or whatever.
That's sort of why I'm nervous to be honest.
She's used to all this really chic stuff and being around models and film stars and I'm just worried she's gonna try to give me something I can't pull off.

[ Not just her friend, but one of her very best friends. Ben is a good person and she feels just as lucky that he includes her in his life.

Also apparently his sister is super famous. Yeah, that definitely makes a difference, and is information she's glad to have now, so that she can plan. Not only the sister of a treasured friend, but one of the glittering Hollywood elite. It's not that she's unprepared to meet a person like that. Quite the contrary. But she normally doesn't have as much on the line while making that tricky first impression. She's already mentally scrolling through every item in her available wardrobe, trying to make the most appropriate choice for the situation. ]

How is it that we've fast-tracked all sorts of intimate details of our lives, and somehow it never swung around to one of your sisters being famous?

I guess I skipped some of the really basic stuff, huh? Oops.
Probably because I'm too used to assuming everybody's heard of her.

Allison is definitely, like, the successful sibling.
She's the only one of us who got married and had a kid.
She's divorced now and there's some custody stuff but still.

And she was always really good at handling all the media stuff when we were teens
Like giving interviews and dealing with fans and all of it.
(I know this is gonna shock you but I super wasn't)

Deeply shocked. I'm clutching my pearls. Or I would be, if I were wearing them. When I get back downstairs to where my pearls are, I will clutch them.

[ Ben's sense of humour reminds her a little bit of Gabriel's, and a little bit of Kenneth's. Familiar on each count, but still uniquely his. It's easy to feel comforted by, even when she doesn't understand it, or reads the sacrasm wrong.

She doesn't want to touch on success or failure. She's pretty sure only one person in that family was an actual failure of a human being, and it certainly wasn't any of the kids. Not that she knows all of them. Not even half of them, actually, but she still feels pretty confident that they all deserved far better than they had. ]

Listen, don't worry about it too much. She might be a famous fashionista, but she's still your sister. She knows you, and she knows what you like, and I don't think she'll try to give you anything that you're not comfortable with.

If she does, just scratch your nose or something, and I'll tell her I hate it. Unless I don't hate it. I'll say something, though.

[ Ben grins, glad at the way Cho is picking up on his banter and jokes, playing along. It’s good to be able to have light-hearted conversations with her, too. Show her he isn’t only gloomy. ]

I guess you’re right, she wouldn’t intentionally give me anything I don’t like.
But how’s she supposed to know what I won’t like in advance when I barely have any idea myself?

I’m gonna remember that nose scratching trick though so keep an eye out.

None of us know. We're going to find out together. Don't worry, I promise I won't get intimidated, no matter how glamorous she is.

Besides, I'm sure she knows that people look their best when they're comfortable. It's maybe even more important than the clothes themselves - being comfortable in them.

Okay. Thank you, Cho. Seriously.

I'll give you the details once it's all arranged.

[ It takes Cho a long time to find the dancing panda gif on her computer, and even longer to figure out how to send it to the phone. She's not giving it up, though. No. Not happening. In the end, and with the help of the as yet unneeded extra cable half from her adventure with Qubit and changing the welcome party music, she manages it. Worth it. ]

So excited! I'll be waiting.

Red Shift inbox

@lazarus | text

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject