Money, money, money... MONEY

[thelittlestbub]

Who: thelittlestbub and frosty_mind
What: The ever needed RETAIL THERAPY
When: Saturday
Where: SHOPPING PLACES
Warnings: Mutant superiority, Jubilee brattiness and Emma being herself.

Comments

[frosty_mind]

"It's a relief to go shopping for something other than business attire and weaponry," Emma agreed, stepping inside and moving to let the other woman enter. They both blinked to allow their eyes to adjust to the light.

"May I help you, madam?" the clerk inquired, ignoring Jubilee and attempting to look down her nose at Emma.

Emma looked back at her with an amused curve to her lips. "I'm looking for a corset, overbust, white coated spring steel boning, white or offwhite silk fabric. I can give measurements, but I'm sure it'll have to be custom made -- I wanted to see examples of your patterns."

As she ignored the clerk raking eyes down her figure, she turned to Jubilee and said conversationally, "I have been missing corsets."

[thelittlestbub]

"Well, I don't ever go shopping for weaponry, so..." She grinned, following Emma into the store.

Jubilee completely ignored the woman talking to Emma, eying the clothing on offer. None of it was to her taste, but they weren't here for her. They were here for something specific for Emma.

She laughed and turned back to Emma. "I figured. Have had this place staked out since before you came. I needed a corset for Halloween last year." She hadn't bought it here, but she hadn't needed to.

[frosty_mind]

Emma laughed. "I'm trying to decide what to dress as for Halloween already. We're getting an increase in jewelry business already, and we haven't moved into the mall yet."

She accepted the catalog that the clerk gave her, arcing an eyebrow slightly at the failure to show her into the next room. "You have Halloween plans yet?"

[thelittlestbub]

"Well, I'd let you borrow last year's, but I don't think we could alter it enough for you." She grinned. "This year, though, I'm probably going to be working, at least part of the night. If we're allowed, I'll be going as a Chinese noblewoman."

She'd been sewing on it recently and wasn't sure that it would get done. She hoped so. Jubilee leaned over and looked at the catalog as Emma thumbed through it.

"I wonder if that one guy knows how to make corsets."

[frosty_mind]

"The one Mr. Creed recommended? Probably, but he'd have to get the materials; a bunch of them are specific to corsets; if I do well enough to have money to play with to buy several, that's a definite approach, though."

"I'll figure out a costume in time, I'm sure. I haven't picked the theme, but something to go with the corset. Possibly play off my name and do something with ice or snow."

She glances at the clerk. "Could I see something in the T304, T306, and V245 patterns? And are you still in the time period where a rush order adds a hundred, or are we close enough to Halloween that the premium has risen?"

An assurance that that happens next week, and the clerk stepped into the next room, and Emma continued to Jubilee, "That's a lot of costume you're making there, then."

[thelittlestbub]

"I've been working on it after work. I've dragged a few of the smaller pieces to the Gate to work on them during my breaks." She shrugged. "Last year, I made a full Elizabethan gown. I... get bored with going out after sirens. Sewing fills the time."

And reminded her of missing people at home, but that was beside the point.

Also, Jubilee thought it prudent not to mention her major bout of current insomnia. She wasn't living on coffee at least.

"I could put together a full skirt for you pretty quickly, something..." She frowned. "Ice Queenish, with a fantasy bent. No... Club wear, but it'd be different."

Jubilee also thought it imprudent to just start babbling about the Hellfire Club in public.

[frosty_mind]

"A full skirt beneath, an overbust corset on top?" Emma contemplates. "That could work with the right accessories. I could even start the evening with a shirt over the corset."

"Are you coordinating your costume with anyone?"

[thelittlestbub]

"I could do something like that, sure." It wouldn't be that hard, and there was still time. And again: insomnia. It filled the time. And it meant she wasn't working out all the time.

"Nope. I figure I'm going to have to work anyway." She shrugged. She'd worked there last year during Halloween as security. Besides, the tips would be huge. True, it was a Monday night, which she normally didn't work, but it'd be worth it. Especially since the party would likely be on Saturday.

[frosty_mind]

"I'm buying the corset now, dear; I'd just need the skirt. The shirt is optional, and something we can hunt down as a game along with anything you want once the business is done." She tilts her head. "Can hunt for the skirt too, but I think finding the shirt is more likely."

"You do seem to enjoy your job. Which, apart from being consolation for working on Halloween, is always nice to see."

[thelittlestbub]

Jubilee grinned. "I know. But I can't let you walk out wearing just a plain skirt now can I?" She was already thinking about designs for it. It'd be simple, but not plain.

Jubilee sighed. "Well, it beats the last job I had, and I have to admit, the tips are nice. Besides, it's a job that lets me still... be me. Which is always a bonus. My first job was better. I was a gymnastics and self-defense instructor."

[frosty_mind]

"You can let me wear a plain skirt," Emma pointed out with amusement. "You just won't."

"What happened to the first job you had?"

[thelittlestbub]

"Well, no. You're still Emma Frost. Alternate dimension or not, there's standards to maintain." Jubilee was dead serious. There were certain things in her life that were constant and making sure Emma stepped out in style was one of them.

"Oh, well, I corrected this little brat's stance one too many times. He went whining to Mommy and Daddy who complained to the boss... who made the financial decision that I was to be let go, so he could keep his gym." Jubilee shrugged. It was old, old news to her.

[frosty_mind]

"I see." Emma's tone is arctic. "It's good to be reminded sometimes that there are worse rich parenting styles than my father's."

[Emma doesn't talk about her family often. Jubilee's probably seen enough of Adrienne to have some idea why.]

[thelittlestbub]

Oooh Adrienne. Responsible for Ev's death. Jubilee remembers her well.

"Sometimes, but then, I was a rich man's daughter too. And look at how I turned out." A smirk. Come on Emma.

[frosty_mind]

[Emma remembers her even better, having had a much longer acquaintance.]

"Obviously I need more shopping," Emma said with an amused look, accepting the change of subject. "You, dear, have had so many different parental influences that I'd have a hard time keeping track if I weren't one of them. Fortunately you managed to pick up mostly our good influences."

[She finalizes her corset order, pays out several hundred dollars in cash, and receives a receipt, a photograph of the pattern, and a scrap of fabric.]

[thelittlestbub]

"Try telling Michael that when he's yelling at me about the beer." Jubilee was joking. Mostly. Alright, no she wasn't. The beer conversation was ongoing. It was one of the few things they both could yell about and get out frustrations, without truly hurting anyone's feelings.

Except maybe Francis's, but that was because he drank wine.

"Or Edgeworth when we're arguing about how horribly wrong the X-Men are to be 'vigilantes' and not be deputized." Jubilee tucked her hands into her pockets and followed Emma out of the shop.