Room 508, Thursday Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

So...prom was tomorrow. And almost the entire contents of Kathy's wardrobe was strewn about her side of the room, as she tried to find something--anything--that she could wear and still look Ms. Adler in the eye if she were there to chaperone. Even knowing that most of this stuff hadn't started off as her wouldn't make up for actually wearing it. In public. Where people could see.

She knew she ought to be more grateful. Most of the clothes in her closet came from her neighbors who had wanted to make sure that she'd have plenty of clothing when she went away to school. And nobody in her neighborhood was rich, so handmedowns were the best most people could do. But...still... There was a reason that sometimes she dressed like someone out of the late seventies. It wasn't her aesthetic. It was just what was in her closet, especially when it had been awhile since she'd done laundry.

But even sternly reminding herself to be grateful wasn't helping her prom dilemma any. Not when she was staring at someone's weird obsession with short skirts and detachable trains. In various colors. Because that was a thing she needed, yes.

She should have taken Ms. Adler up on her offer of ordering a gown from class on Tuesday. Or maybe she should just try fashioning something out of her curtains and a flat sheet. It couldn't be any worse than some of her other options, after all.

Dammit, she really missed Minako. Between her and Sparkle, they could have salvaged something out of this wreck of fabric. And even if they couldn't...well, she still missed Minako.

Ah well. Once more into the sartorial mines. Maybe she'd missed something? No not that.

[Mostly silliness, because Kathy's PB wears some FUCKING RIDICULOUS CLOTHING. Either way, open door, open post! And a link to Hanna's conversation. DAMMIT, LJ!]

Comments

[voiceoverdue]

Cecil was heading back to his room after sitting at the table in the lobby, and peeked in, seeing all the fabric draped everywhere.

"Are you dressing or redecorating?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Right now?" Kathy asked, turning and waving Cecil in with a smile. "Contemplating arson. How goes prom ticket sales, Cecil?"

[voiceoverdue]

"Oo, arson can be fun! Ticket sales are okay; I think most folks have theirs by now. What are you burning?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"My entire wardrobe," Kathy said, holding up a shirt that had apparently lost a fight with a paper shredder. "I've been intending to get new clothes for myself now that I can afford them, but I just...haven't."

There'd always been something better to do.

"But now prom is tomorrow and I have no idea what I'm going to wear for it." She made a face. "Oh god. I sound like my mother."

[voiceoverdue]

"Well, what kind of thing are you looking for?" Cecil asked.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Ideally, a dress that was designed in this decade and doesn't look like someone's slacker art project," Kathy said, having discovered another one of the detachable-train dresses, this one in blue. "If, after all that, it also fits well and makes me look even moderately attractive, I'm sold."

[voiceoverdue]

"I'm not wearing mine," Cecil said. "D'you want to borrow it? I figured I shouldn't wear it two years in a row, but I hate to just set it aside, so that way it'd get to be worn! Or you could get creative and make your own? Then it could look like anything you want!"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Oooh, maybe," Kathy said with a nod. "I'll at least check it out if you don't mind loaning it. I don't have time to make one for myself." Or the skills, really.

She hadn't been old enough to go to prom last year and some of Cecil's choices in class were suspect--much like her own, truthfully--but she wasn't going to say no without even seeing the dress.

"If you see anything you like in the discard pile, feel free to snag it," she offered. "I really need to make room in my closet for new stuff."

[voiceoverdue]

"Sure!" Cecil grinned. "Let me go get it!"

He ran off and came back a little bit later with the dress. "What do you think? Will it fit?"

[tigerundercover]

Raven was passing by and found herself doing a double take after she happened to walk past Kathy's room.

She had never seen quite that many trains in one place before. Especially considering not a damn one of them looked bridal.

"Wow," she said, looking over the rest of the mess of clothes. "This is -- is all this stuff in fashion?"

She really had no idea. She had found her weird little retro fashion niche of internet and had stuck to it, for her own inspirations.

[spin_kick_snap]

Yeah, but 50s clothing was iconic!

"Only if you're an elderly Korean grandma who knits doilies and dresses out of the same darn pattern," Kathy groused, staring at another monstrosity. "I'm pretty sure this started life as a rug somewhere."

Tossing it into the 'oh god get rid of it' pile, she finally glanced up and gave Raven a smile. "Hey, come on in. I promise not to try to foist anything extra hideous on you."

[tigerundercover]

Raven came in, eyeing the piles of clothing curiously. ". . . Your grandma made all this?" she asked, lifting the corner of something brightly colored with innumerable ruffles. "Where do you even have room for it all?"

Asked the girl who could fit her entire wardrobe into one small suitcase -- and only had that much for show.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy shook her head. "Nah, both my grandmas live in Korea. We get gifts every few years from them, when we visit, but the cost to ship overseas makes anything else way too expensive a proposition."

Nodding at the mountain of terrible clothing, she explained, "These are all from women in my neighborhood back home. Before I came here, most of what I wore were my school uniforms and gymnastic gear, with, like tee-shirts and jeans on the weekends. So when it came time for me to move out here, everyone came together to make sure I had enough clothing to wear for all different occasions." Like whatever occasion would require something like this. Kathy wasn't sure what that occasion would be but she sure was prepared for it.

"So I kinda feel guilty about just throwing it all away..."

[tigerundercover]

"You could . . . donate it?" That was a thing people with clothing did, right? "Oh, I think I kinda like that one. It looks like it should be on TV somewhere."

[spin_kick_snap]

"You want it?" Kathy offered. "It's kinda itchy and uncomfortable. I tried it on and, I dunno, maybe it just didn't fit right? But I felt like I was getting compressed and it sorta looked like my chest was on fire."

[tigerundercover]

"Oh. Um." How to put this politely? "No thanks? I don't really need any new clothes right now." Or pretty much ever. ". . . Could you hold it up a little, though? So I can see the lines?"

She didn't want to keep it, but that didn't mean she didn't want to file away the style for potential later use.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy laughed. She recognized that 'Oh. Um.' "Yeah, sure, no problem," she said, holding it up so Raven could see whatever she wanted of it. "Don't worry. I don't want most of it, either. I'm not offended you don't."

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

Hanna was doing the wandering thing that she liked to do sometimes, and stopped when she saw that Kathy's door was open. Then paused at all the piles of clothes.

"You have so many," she said, then belatedly, "hi."

[spin_kick_snap]

"You want some?" Kathy offered, though she wasn't sure she wanted to inflict any of the clothing she had onto anyone else. "Free to a good home. Or a bad home. Or anyplace at all that isn't my room."

She grinned at Hanna and motioned her inside. "Come on in! I promise, it's not usually such a mess. I'm trying to get ready for prom tomorrow and, well..." she gestured at all the clothing. "This just kinda happened."

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

"You're going to the party?" Hanna said, still not really clear on the differences, although Cecil had explained some. Some of the clothes looked nice. Some of them looked liked they'd be nice... if they were not with other clothes. Hmm. "Are you sure you don't want some of them?" Sparkle had been wonderfully helpful, but Hanna still had very little in terms of wardrobe. Not that she needed more. But. Still.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Yeah," Kathy said. "Prom's like an American tradition. It's like a super-fancy Homecoming or Valentine's Day dance, but only open to the upperclassmen. And their dates, I guess. It's supposed to be the pinnacle of your high school experience, kinda. Though that might be senior prom."

She shoved a few items off the bed, clearing a space for Hanna to sit. "And, yeah, I'm pretty sure about most of this stuff. Most of it just isn't really me."

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

"Is this a cape (http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/spin_kick_snap/64639984/153376/153376_original.jpg)?" Hanna wondered, frowning a little over what Kathy had explained. "I'm a sophomore. So I suppose the rules say I can't go."

She was half-considering sneaking in to see what the fuss was about.

"You don't sound happy about it, exactly."

[spin_kick_snap]

"No," Kathy said glumly. "That's a skirt. Why it's like that? I have no idea. I've got another one just like it in gray."

She was trying to figure out what she'd done to deserve not one of those, but two.

"And I'm not unhappy about prom, I'm just a little frustrated with it right now," she admitted. "It's the first time I really care about what I'm going to be wearing to a dance ad now I'm finding that everything I could wear to it is, well..." She picked up another dress. "This."

Who decided Freddy Kreuger should be a fashion designer?

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

"It looks-- nice? -- from the front." Hanna had no concept of fashion, but she had a very strong grasp on practical. "The back looks like it was already snagged on something. Perhaps you could find someone to just cut it off?"

She paused and added, "You could cut up a great deal of these and they would be improved, I think. I could at least hem them."

Living where the clothes had to be knitted by hand or cut out from animal hides, she'd gotten a certain amount of practice with a needle.

[spin_kick_snap]

"You could say the same about adding a judicious bit of fire," Kathy muttered, still looking at the three different crocheted skirts that she'd been given. And their matching trains. "I'm kinda thinking that I want to start fresh though. Figure out my style and go from there? Except that every time I think that, I hear my mother's voice in my head nagging at me for being wasteful."

Which was unfair, because it was also her mother's voice that nagged at her to be more stylish and pretty and popular. Sometimes a girl just couldn't win.