Grilled Unagi !knpZoUeiT2 2010/06/10 (Thu) 08:38 No. 21176 I've taken everyone's suggestions into consideration. European house it is!
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As interested as you are in seeing what Reimu has planned for your outfit, you feel that you would be more comfortable with something more familiar. "Let's check out that one then, Alice," you say, pointing to the store behind her. Alice nods in approval as Reimu sighs and shrugs, joining the two of you as you enter the store. The owner, an overweight, gray-haired man in a brown pinstriped suit from an era you barely remember from history class, stands up from behind the counter and greets the three of you. "Ah, Alice my dear, I have not seen you come by for a long time now. I see you've brought some friends along?"
Alice smiles and bows her head. "It's been a while, Sir Douglas. I have a friend here who is in need of local clothing. He's a... guest here in Gensokyo." She gestures toward you when she says "guest."
Douglas walks around the counter to take a look at you. The man is a fair bit shorter than you, with tiny black eyes sizing you up from behind a pair of brass-rimmed spectacles. He hums and nods a few times as he looks you over, producing a tape measure to take a few measurements of your height, arm length, your waist size, and he also asks about your shoe size, weight, and other details about your measurements. Alice watches with a knowing eye: you get the feeling she's done this as well. Maybe for her dolls?
"Excellent, excellent. So, what kind of clothing are you looking for, lad?"
"Well, I'm not re-"
"I have something in mind already, Sir Douglas. I have a good memory, I think I recall seeing the piece I'm thinking of over in that section," interrupts Alice, pointing over towards the far side of the store. "Shall we go over there so I can point it out to you?"
Douglas nods in return, his hands idly wringing themselves together. He moves off, with Alice close behind. However, she pauses next to you and then suddenly pats you on the shoulder, once. "Charles, stay."
You stare at Alice's back as she walks off with Douglas. Did she just...? Nearby, Reimu is giggling at the exchange. "I think she likes you, Charlie. Normally she's very formal with her guests. I mean, she still is with you, but she's never done something like that before."
That's an interesting tidbit to know. You're silent for a bit, though you can hear the indistinct murmur of Douglas and Alice's voices from the other side of the store. Hold on, you're here alone with Reimu. Maybe you could ask something on your mind...
"Reimu, do you really need Tenshi around the shrine? I mean, I talked to her for a bit, and it sounds like she's already worked off the debt she owes you."
Reimu's smile falls. Uh-oh? "Funny you asked. The fact Tenshi is still at the shrine at all is entirely her doing. She has nowhere to go, she was literally banned from Heaven, and it might be a while before her dad forgives her. I like to think what I'm having her do is simply... rent payment."
"Well, what if she had somewhere else to go? Like, I dunno, say the Moriya Shrine offered to take her in."
Reimu folded her arms across her chest as she cocked her head to the side. "I suppose that could happen, Sanae's pretty virtuous in some regards. However, Tenshi won't be going anywhere without that sword of hers. I suppose if she managed to find it, I could agree to let her go. I'll be honest, Tenshi sucks at cleaning up the house. She does know how to boil water properly at least though..."
There's a scuffle of shoes on wood as Alice and Douglas return, the latter holding a set of folded clothes in his arms. Wait. You peer closer. That's a lot of clothing. He comes up to you, and instinctively you hold out your arms as he dumps the pile in your grasp.
"Please, take your time, dear customers. I'll be patiently awaiting your purchases!" says Douglas as he returns to his seat behind the counter. Alice waves her hand at you to follow her, a smile barely restrained from creeping out on her lips.
Oh boy. You have a good idea of why there's so many articles of clothing in the pile you're holding. Guess she's still quite a human girl at times afterall.
Alice takes you to the dressing room in the back of the store, with Reimu tagging along out of curiosity. Rae and Shanghai float alongside you, one on each side of your head. Inside, you dump the clothes on the bench along the wall, and Alice starts browsing through it. Reimu steps over next to her to look at the clothes Alice is picking out.
"Do you know what is interesting about this store, Charles?"
You shake your head in response, of course you wouldn't know. Alice finally lets the grin she'd be repressing break out onto her face. "This store has clothing spanning from as far back as the Middle Ages, yet even carries contemporary pieces from your own time. The possibilities and combinations are endless. And to think, this is just clothing from a western sphere of culture. The store next door covers fashion from all ages of Japan, and there's another store down the street for Chinese and Indian wear. All of these places have clothing from thousands of years ago hanging right next to clothes from within the last decade in the outside world."
That's pretty amazing. You're now curious to see what it would look like to combine some good ol' samurai robes with something from the 1920s. Probably offensive to the sight, but it sounds like it could be fun to mix and match. Alice has beaten you to the punch though, as she stands up from browsing the pile of clothing.
"First things first. Your clothes, off. Everything."
Wait, what, did she just tell you to strip? In front of two girls? Neither of whom you've met in person for longer than two days?
"Uh, Alice, that's a bit hasty... I mean, I've only met you guys for maybe a day, isn't this going a bit fas-"
Your words freeze in place, as does your body. Alice has a hand held up towards you with a faint light-blue glow emanating from her fingers; you realizes that she had been muttering something like a chant while you had been protesting. Alice's currently bright yellow eyes squint in glee, and you'd swear cat ears would have grown out of her head if she could do that. "That stasis spell will keep you nice and still, Charles. Don't worry, I'll remove it once we finish. Reimu, you can join in as you like."
Both girls advance on you with fingers curled like claws, and playful grins on their face. Rae hovers off behind them, looking at you a bit worriedly, while Shanghai puts up her little hands in a defeated "nice knowing you" pose.
---
It lasted over an hour. Alice and Reimu stripped you bare, and went to town using you as a human-sized dress-up doll. Various suits, blouses, robes, and footwear went on and off in swift fashion. There was even a suit of armor at one point. Then it started getting weirder, as things like frills, ribbons, and a tuba were thrown in the mix. Even though you yourself could not move under Alice's spell, the girls could position your body however they wanted, and they took this detail as far as they could for their giggling amusement.
It finally ended though, as you think back on it while sitting down on the bench clad in your new clothes. The last pieces of clothing Alice dressed you up in was the outfit she had picked out for you; it was a pretty spiffy black three-piece suit, with Victorian-era leather boots and a white button-up blouse underneath, complete with a black necktie. After dressing you up in it, and finally releasing you from the spell, Alice and Reimu mentioned that something seemed missing, and both girls vacated to find whatever articles of clothing they had in mind, leaving you alone with Rae and Shanghai.
Rae seemed to be wholly embarassed about the situation as she nervously patted your shoulder. Maybe she was trying to reassure you about your loss of dignity. Shanghai on the other hand, was lying on her side in midair, head propped up on one arm and puffing on an imaginary cigarette. Doll, please.
Standing up, you ruffle Rae's hair to show her that you're just fine. Alice and Reimu were just having fun, they surely didn't mean anything bad towards you by using your frozen body for their amusement. Nahhhh. Anyway, you take a look at yourself in the mirror. Y'know, if you had a brown coat and that one kind of cap you don't remember the name for, you'd look like a certain famed detective...
"We're ba~ck."
Reimu's sing-songy announcement catches your attention as you turn around. Both Alice and Reimu hold a different piece of clothing in hand: Alice has a gray beret, while Reimu is holding something that looks like a Japanese sleeveless jacket. Walking up to you, Alice smiles as she plops the beret on your head. "Charles, I'd like to both apologize and thank you. Apologize for hurting your pride, and thank you for being a wonderful mannequin."
You shrug in response. "That's alright, really. I mean, you guys were just having fun, it's not that big a deal."
Alice steps off to the side as Reimu approaches with the jacket. It's an interesting piece of clothing: it's a rich, dark red color, with black lapels from the collar down to the bottom edge of the jacket. On closer inspection as Reimu holds it up for you to see, there's rather meticulous design in the fabric, on the back of the jacket in particular is a design that resembles a crow's claw. The back of the jacket splits at the bottom into two short coattails.
"This is called a jinbaori. It's originally worn by samurai of rank when in camp before battle or other important situations. Nowadays though people wear it more like a dress jacket or just to look cool."
Interesting. It's not the kind of coat you were expecting, but you try it on anyway. Now that you think about it, this is what a lot of fashion in Touhou is: an amalgam of Western and Eastern concepts. Okay, with your outfit it's a lot more basic than that, but...
"Not bad." The jacket has pockets on the inside too, so it's not entirely for show either.
Using the money you exchanged with Mokou, you pay Douglas for your new clothes. He gives you a plastic shopping bag to carry your old clothes in as a free bonus. "Thank you for shopping at Douglas'! Perhaps we will meet again, lad."
Bidding Douglas goodbye, the three of you step outside. Reimu goes over to her cart and takes up the handles as she turns to you and says, "Well, I'm done here for the day. Thanks a bunch for your help Charlie, you're welcome by the shrine any time."
"I had fun Reimu, if you ever need a hand with anything again, feel free to ask."
"Oh, you just know I'm going to take full advantage of your offer now, right?" Reimu giggles again with a sly smile on her face. You shrug and wave goodbye to her as she starts walking off.
Alice turns to you and asks, "We're also done here too. Do you want to walk around town more or head back home?"
Do you:
[ ] Walk around town
[ ] Head back to Alice's house