Late by just a few minutes.
Alright, this is a bit late. But it was awfully quiet around here.
Challenge: Waiting
Genre: way general
Words: 540
Canon: Sure
Rating: G
Mirror didn’t get to choose where master Clow sent her. Most of her tasks involved long hours of sitting around and paying attention to speeches that she didn’t completely understand, and some of her tasks were worse than boring. At least master Clow didn’t send her to take his place when he was the one that was supposed to make one of those speeches. Mirror was shy about talking to strangers; she fooled people pretty well, as long as she didn’t have to talk to them. She liked assignments like the one that her master had charged her to do today.
She stood perfectly still while the tailor crept around near her feet. Even though she was standing on a round, raised platform, Jacobs was a very tall man, with long arms and long legs like a mosquito. He had a nearly bald head, flecked with liver spots, and a narrow nose. He carried pins in his mouth, and rarely spoke. His fingers were nimble, and he hardly ever stuck her with the point of one of those pins when he was fitting Clow’s suits. He wasn’t so much like a mosquito, she thought, in that respect.
She watched him mark the dark grey wool with chalk with precise, practiced flicks of his bony hands. Mirror could hardly see his marks, because they were very faint. The tailor could see them, though, and he could also brush them away without a trace when he no longer needed them. He crept, and marked, and pulled lightly on the as yet unhemmed legs of the pants. When he finished with the left pant leg, he mirrored his activity on the right pant leg.
The tailor was an efficient man, but fitting a suit still took hours, over several return visits. It was very important for Mirror to mimic master Clow’s posture accurately, but if Clow had really had to stand in one place without moving for as long, he would have fidgeted and squirmed and grown a bad mood. Clow’s suits fit him very well because of Mr. Jacobs’ attention to detail and Mirror’s patience. She wished, only, that she could wear the tailoring of something that wasn’t in the conservative monochromatics of grey wool, black silk, or bleached linen. Sometimes she wished that she served a sorceress instead of a sorcerer, so that she could -- if only for a few hours, with unfinished seams -- wear a pretty dress. Mirror thought fondly of petticoats, and ribbons in her hair.
Mirror sighed softly.
Jacobs straightened, but not completely, so that his posture held a slight bow. “A moment longer, Mr. Reed,” he said, mumbling over the pins held by his lips, in answer to Mirror’s sigh.
Mirror smiled at him with reassurance.
Jacobs shuffled over to a clothing stand and picked up the jacket for the suit. He carried it back to his client. Mirror allowed him to slip the jacket over her shoulders, button the front buttons, and continue with the final fitting. While she waited serenely with her arms relaxed at her sides, Jacobs took his stick of chalk from behind his ear and began to make notations on the cuffs.
~ ~ ~
Challenge: Waiting
Genre: way general
Words: 540
Canon: Sure
Rating: G
Mirror didn’t get to choose where master Clow sent her. Most of her tasks involved long hours of sitting around and paying attention to speeches that she didn’t completely understand, and some of her tasks were worse than boring. At least master Clow didn’t send her to take his place when he was the one that was supposed to make one of those speeches. Mirror was shy about talking to strangers; she fooled people pretty well, as long as she didn’t have to talk to them. She liked assignments like the one that her master had charged her to do today.
She stood perfectly still while the tailor crept around near her feet. Even though she was standing on a round, raised platform, Jacobs was a very tall man, with long arms and long legs like a mosquito. He had a nearly bald head, flecked with liver spots, and a narrow nose. He carried pins in his mouth, and rarely spoke. His fingers were nimble, and he hardly ever stuck her with the point of one of those pins when he was fitting Clow’s suits. He wasn’t so much like a mosquito, she thought, in that respect.
She watched him mark the dark grey wool with chalk with precise, practiced flicks of his bony hands. Mirror could hardly see his marks, because they were very faint. The tailor could see them, though, and he could also brush them away without a trace when he no longer needed them. He crept, and marked, and pulled lightly on the as yet unhemmed legs of the pants. When he finished with the left pant leg, he mirrored his activity on the right pant leg.
The tailor was an efficient man, but fitting a suit still took hours, over several return visits. It was very important for Mirror to mimic master Clow’s posture accurately, but if Clow had really had to stand in one place without moving for as long, he would have fidgeted and squirmed and grown a bad mood. Clow’s suits fit him very well because of Mr. Jacobs’ attention to detail and Mirror’s patience. She wished, only, that she could wear the tailoring of something that wasn’t in the conservative monochromatics of grey wool, black silk, or bleached linen. Sometimes she wished that she served a sorceress instead of a sorcerer, so that she could -- if only for a few hours, with unfinished seams -- wear a pretty dress. Mirror thought fondly of petticoats, and ribbons in her hair.
Mirror sighed softly.
Jacobs straightened, but not completely, so that his posture held a slight bow. “A moment longer, Mr. Reed,” he said, mumbling over the pins held by his lips, in answer to Mirror’s sigh.
Mirror smiled at him with reassurance.
Jacobs shuffled over to a clothing stand and picked up the jacket for the suit. He carried it back to his client. Mirror allowed him to slip the jacket over her shoulders, button the front buttons, and continue with the final fitting. While she waited serenely with her arms relaxed at her sides, Jacobs took his stick of chalk from behind his ear and began to make notations on the cuffs.
~ ~ ~