Backlog: Clarice & Sooraya go shopping

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Backdated to Dec 30

Clarice and Sooraya go shopping and catch up



The nice thing about being a teleporter was that she could teleport. No need to deal with traffic. It was glorious. Clarice teleported herself and Sooraya to a mall, making sure that they arrived in a relatively discreet area. No sense in causing a panic. People in general were not used to things like this. "So," she turned to Sooraya. "What are your requirements again? Long pants and sleeves, not too tight? And scarves? Anything else?"

Sooraya had blink a few times to reorient herself after the teleportation, but quickly turned to Clarice. “Skirts are also fine. And it needs to be business-like… That’s it…” She mentally ticked of the points. “And somewhat affordable…” She finally decided to add after a few moments of hesitation.

"Well, yes. Affordable is important," Clarice agreed easily. She was dressed for shopping now with cute, but practical flat boots on over skinny jeans and a large, comfortable sweater belted at the waist. Of course, this was how she tended to dress for class too, when she wasn't in scrubs. "I've got a few stores in mind. I'm thinking things like flared pants, tunic shirts, lighter fabrics though that can be layered so you can wear things all year, make sense?" she asked as she led Sooraya to the first shop, "This one doesn't cater to Muslim fashion specifically, but they have a lot of scarves, so we might be able to find one that matches?"

Sooraya quickly glanced down at the dark blue salwar kameez she was wearing with a matching scarf. “Wouldn’t it be better to look for the clothes first and then look matching scarves?” She asked as they headed for the store. “Oh, and I don’t know if this helps, but when I went looking for western clothes in Attilan once, a friend said that I had a simple and classical style… I never quite figured out what she meant by that…”

"I can work with that," Clarice led her into a store and immediately headed towards the dressier business clothes side. "It means you tend to go with things that look good regardless of whatever's trendy. That's a good thing," she began to select pieces, taking some off the rack to look at and then rejecting then, putting them back. "Okay. So, long skirts aren't really in right now, but basic black pants and tunic style shirts are good. You can wear them untucked too. What do you think?" She held up a few items as an example. There were several different colors and styles to choose from.

She quickly eyed the various tunics Clarice was holding and finally took one in a deep sea-green color from her. “I like this one. “ She quickly slid her hand underneath the cloth to see how opaque it was, then held it up in front of her body. Finally she hung it over her arm to see if it fit later. She repeated the process with one in several shades of purple that still made an harmonious picture. When she had a few options draped over her arm, she turned towards the pants. After looking at a few them, Sooraya shook her head and smiled. “I think I just need to try these on to see if I like them.”

"That's how this works," Clarice agreed. You always had to try on clothes, "I'm thinking of things that can be layered. Like, those shirts are fairly thin, but you can put a white or black long sleeved shirt under them easily. Or even get some things that are sleeveless and can be layered. This way, you can wear it a variety of ways and with different things. The idea isn't to buy five complete outfits, but pieces that you can mix and match to create a lot more."

“And something like blazer to put over it? Would that work?” Sooraya asked. “Most things I read on the Internet said to have one or two. You don’t have to wear them always, but they can be practical for meetings and things like that. Are there any that match the trousers?”

"Absolutely," Clarice agreed, "Blazers are awesome. And you can wear them almost year 'round. And black generally goes with black," the skirts here were too short, but soon enough Clarice had Sooraya sequestered in a little changing room with various things to try on. "So, enjoying the mansion so far?"

“I enjoy being back. It’s nice to see several old faces…“ Sooraya said as she shrugged out of her salwaar and kameez, having removed her scarf first. “Things have changed, but so have I…” She quickly selected some trousers, pulled on the sea green tunic and put a blazer over it. She didn’t have any scarfs yet, so peeked around the curtain and when she saw the area was empty except for Clarice, she left the changing room. “What do you think?”

The changing rooms were for women only, so Sooraya shouldn't worry much about there being a guy around, "I like it," Clarice replied, checking the fit of it all. "Not sure that this is your colour though...." she regarded the other girl thoughtfully, "Maybe with a different blazer, but not a black one. But it works otherwise. We can get a white blazer probably. Or camel."

Sooraya regarded the purple girl curiously. “It just doesn’t work in combination with this tunic, you mean? Or doesn’t it work at all?” She looked down at herself “Do we also need camel pants then or do black pants work with that? It seems a little very busy to me with the colors. I do like the pants though.” She fingered the silky cloth. “They feel loose enough without getting stuck between things.”

"With camel pants," Clarice clarified, "They come in different colours. If the black ones fit, then we know which size to get you in the others," it made things simple. People did not need 10 pairs of pants if they did not all fit. Once you found pants that fit well, buy them in all the colours!

The Muslim girl nodded. “Let me go get my scarf. Then we can go get a camel pair of pants and blazer and try them on with all the tunics. “ She eyed the several brightly colored tunics that hung over the chair. “Almost every color goes with black, but I have no idea about camel… There are a couple of them I really like… Maybe we can also grab another color? Like navy? Or some kind of dark green? My mom loved a dark green salwar kameez I used to have.”

"You stay here, I'll go get them," Clarice replied, already heading to the door and coming back a moment later with them, "Here you go. A dark green would look good. Or navy blue, sure. It all depends on the shade really. Camel's a neutral like black, you can wear almost everything with it as you do with black, it just gives a softer effect." Hopefully that made sense.

Sooraya took the clothes and headed back into the changing room. “Maybe we can look for a slightly different model in dark green or navy?” She asked from behind the curtain. Quickly shucking the black pants and blazer and pulling on the camel ones, she regarded herself in the mirror for a moment. “I like this…” was muttered softly as she left the small room.

"Here you go," Clarice brought her the new garments. "So how's school? You finish soon, right?"

The clothes were accepted with a soft thank you from Sooraya and she put them over a chair, so that she finish looking at the clothes she was wearing first. “End of this school year.” She confirmed. “And then it’s off to college. And school is a little strange when you only have to finish two courses and you do not go to class, but to tutoring sessions. But it’s working out and that is most important… How are things going for you? Did you manage to get everything sorted out with your Dean? I can imagine that not all school are as… accepting of weird things as Xavier’s is.”

"Yeah, it's all....well, I'm not kicked out, right?" Clarice shrugged, it was probably a good thing that she wasn't trying to become a doctor with how things were right now. "Anyways, you have a least five outfits right there. Lots of options that mix and match," Sooraya wore clothes well, she just needed a little more confidence in choosing them.

Okay, that was probably a bit of sensitive topic, Sooraya figured. And not one to continue on. “She surveyed the clothes. “I think I have quite a bit of what I need… All I need to add are a few new scarves, I think. How about we go pick out some of those and I will buy you a coffee or something. I think I owe you at least a coffee, maybe with some nice pastry?”

"Sounds like a great plan," Clarice smiled, never one to turn down coffee or a pastry! "I like how the scarves you wear match and aren't always just black. That gets so boring," sure, Sooraya wore black headscarves too, but not solely.

“Thanks.” Sooraya eyed her new clothes happily, glad they had been able to find several new outfits, one with a skirt that would work. It was a little shorter then she usually wore it, but it looked good and was modest. “Let’s go find some scarves, coffee and pastry then.”