And you cry confess
Old sorceress
How you bring the rain and the plague
And my impotence

@emily - outfit

Serafina hadn't really considered how her life would change when she left the Krai with Theo, over a year ago. She had merely thought about not dying, that she was so close to fading away that it was her only choice. The man seemed to be interesting enough and she'd never been in contact with other people enough to suspect them. She had not thought about the danger. Of course, he was dangerous after all, but not to her. What she had never considered was Theo's social standing. She had never been part of society, she had not considered that he might have a position or that it would bring along public appearances or any of such things. Theo hated it anyway and he hadn't even considered making her go through anything other pureblood girls did. Being demure and being pretty and marrying who they were told. He had demands. He did not care if she didn't look like a lady, he did not care if she never behaved like one. If she was to marry, he just wanted them to not be a muggleborn and he wanted her first daughter to be named after his mother. Sera, of course, thought it all rather ridiculous but said nothing to argue the point. There was no reason for it, she didn't think she would ever reach a situation that made her consider anything of the like.

Still, she looked the part because Pansy had taken it upon herself to teach her that. Even if her father's friend hadn't decided to do that, Rhea probably would have. Her cousin was particularly fond of looking good and trying to make her be a lady like her. Sera thought it was horrifyingly boring and that there were tons of better things she could be doing with her time. Instead, she learned her table manners and how to dance and all those ridiculous things. She figured that it was useful when she went to balls, probably, but she had only gone to two and he had been resisting the urge to just turn around and go home the whole time. It was no wonder Theo was always on the verge of committing mass homicide. She had no patience for stupidity and no interest in gossip and no idea or interest in pureblood politics. It was all she could do to refrain from testing out many of her experiments in the people around her.

What she did enjoy about all that, was getting new things. Sera wasn't particularly materialistic, she had to admit, but she did enjoy the feeling of something new. It reminded her of when Tatiana would come back with objects to store in the already overcrowded house. These things were much better quality, apparently, and Theo had no problem with her getting as many things as she wanted. He had a lot of gold, his family was old, and apparently he made more than enough money to save up on top of things. His wealth just accumulated. What she didn't like was crowds, so she preferred to go to the more silent place. Rhea was supposed to meet her later on, but for she was fine. Sitting in the silent shop by herself as the clerk fetched all the gowns they had on offer. After all, she was sure there would be some ball or another soon. She didn't like to be rushed, so she preferred to buy things already.

Behind her, the bell rang as another customer entered.

Great things never came from comfort zones

Outfit

Emily was exhausted, She had gone running that morning to clear her mind, but it had not worked she was still just as angry and confused as ever. She needed some time to process what was happening with the people she loved most, there was Ezra who sided with her father on the subject of her betrothal, then there was her father who had created the contract knowing full well she would disapprove. She did not think she was being unreasonable for disapproving,  they were marrying her off to a half-blood and that was beneath her in a lot of ways, but he was also a Parkinson, and for that reason alone she was highly conflicted. He would have been a perfect match in her eyes had he only been pureblood, although possibly a little too good. However, that did not make her feel that much better in this real world where he was a half-blood. She felt it was cruel really, to be marrying into such a prestigious family but for the man, she would be marrying someday to be a half-blood. She did not fully even know how she felt, perhaps she was being ungrateful, there were after all far worse matches her father could have made for her. 

She had spent the morning enjoying nature, she loved nature and animals and the quiet serenity of the countryside where her family lived. However, even the beauty of nature could stop her conflictions from rising within her mind. She felt she just needed to get out of her house and hopefully out of her head for a while she had her dad take her to Diagon Ally and they parted ways shortly after so that she could shop her troubles away as she often liked to do. She stopped to get something to eat first as these burning questions in her mind had made her stomach grumble and growl as if it was just as furious as she was. She scarfed down her meal and headed towards the shops, feeling certain that a new outfit or two would do the trick and make her life seem less like it was falling apart all around her. 

She walked into the store and heard the bell ring above her, and she noticed a girl standing nearby, it was someone she knew, Sera, Rhea's cousin, well, adopted cousin, but cousin none the less. She waved hello to the girl, and headed over towards her. She was a little frightened by Sera but in that way that makes you curious about someone, she almost couldn't shy away from such a unique soul. She thought the girl very peculiar, but she had never been anything other than friendly, well as friendly as Sera could be, to Emily and so Emily was nice to her. Afterall she was Rhea's family and friend and that made Emily want to attempt a friendship with the girl. They had some things in common, though few, that made bonding a little easier for them and shopping was, in a way, one of those things. "Hello, Sera," She said with a friendly smile, hoping the girl needed a shopping partner for the day.

Sera didn't like going out when it would be very crowded, because as much as she'd gotten used to crowds by being at Hogwarts, she still didn't particularly enjoy being caught in one. Being so much taller than most people helped, but she was so sick of the heat of summer and a lot of people close by her only made things worse. Even if she was tall enough to mostly make her way through without issue, it was annoying at best and infuriating at worst. Therefore, she tried to avoid the midday heat and the happy shoppers by being at the door of wherever she needed to be first thing in the morning. It helped her to get things done quickly and be gone before a lot of people arrived, and it also allowed her to avoid most daily interaction with Theo. He tended to have guests over at night or be out for some reason or another, so he rose later than she did. Besides, even if he didn't, he rarely left his own wing of the estate before mid morning. Either that or he was out somewhere bothering Medea, but he had been taking it easy on the maid for some reason or another lately. Sera hadn't asked, she didn't particularly care.

It was the early hour of the morning that made her sudden company so surprising. It was barely nine, Rhea wouldn't even be awake yet as she liked to make the most of her vacation. Or so she called it, Sera didn't consider sleeping to be all that entertaining, it was but a necessity to her. Either way, it wasn't as if Emily was unwelcome to her, Sera just didn't exactly know how to interact with her. It was true that they both enjoyed obtaining new things, but Sera wasn't sociable at all. She also wasn't interested in anyone's personal life or sob story or interests unless they had anything to do with her own. Rhea was a different matter, and while she made the effort with Caerus and LJ, they had both been special cases. Emily was not, however, and Sera hated any sort of small talk. There was no point to it and she didn't make a habit of keeping pointless pastimes. She thought that was something she had in common with Theo, but it was one of the few things and she preferred not to think of him at the moment anyway. No, she supposed it was fine for now. She was only looking at gowns, after all. Theo gave her enough money to get whatever she wanted for herself, and she didn't know how much it was compared to most people's financial situation since she hadn't exactly been in contact with the idea of commerce before coming here... but she also didn't care about other people's financial situation or what was normal.

"Hello." Sera returned the greeting, looking down at the shorter girl. Then she looked back at the clerk's door for a second to check that no one was coming. They always had such a hard time finding something for her. Mostly because she was far taller and thinner than average women, but also because she always wanted something that was different yet the same. She didn't like wearing colours, she had a position to pay attention to, and the gowns she bought were always for some high class function she didn't want to attend anyway. She would have had one made if it didn't take so much more time than just coming here and picking one out. There were better things to be spending her time on. She had a lake full of inferi to attend to at home, for example. "What are you looking for?"

I put a spell on you and now you're mine

Emily was not looking for anything in particular but she did need a distraction and what better distraction could she have than this girl she did not know well. Emily loved to make friends and turning acquaintances into friends was one of her specialties. She noticed the girls figure and enviously wished to be as tall and slender as she was, although she was quite certain it would have made clothes shopping a little.....difficult. Emily wanted to help the girl with her shopping if she could, she loved helping people especially when it came to fashion. Emily considered herself somewhat of an expert on fashion and she certainly should be after the countless hours she spent huddled in a corner reading through ridiculous amounts of fashion magazines. She loved magazines and how they made her feel as if she could escape for a long while with just the turn of a page, she was no longer Emily, Hogwarts student when she opened a magazine she was Emily, reporter, model, expert. 

Emily smiled at Sera "I am not looking for anything specific, but if you are I'd be more than happy to help. I am pretty good with fashion and someone as tall as you could look like a model in practically anything".  She was trying to be nice and hoping for some spark of friendship in return to show her that it was possible that this girl did not dislike her. She perked up a bit now that she had the self-engineered mission and she hoped that Sera would indulge her. She had needed the distraction after everything that she had learned and she was truly scared to be left alone with her thoughts on the matter, it was something that was such a sore subject for her and it would have only brought up many feelings about her grandparents and if she could avoid that at all costs she would. 

Before even giving Sera the time to answer her, Emily looked down and saw an outfit lying in a fitting room chair next to Sera, and she gasped "You are not planning on wearing that are you?' I know we can find something better for you in these racks somewhere, leave it to me and you will look amazing!" Emily began searching hardly caring if Sera wished her to or not at this point, she was not going to let this girl go out into polite society looking anything but the best. Emily knew what it was like to be a pureblood daughter and she knew that in most cases many eyes were on her and she figured it would be the same for Sera, so she felt it was her duty to make sure this girl was not embarrassed. 

template by punki of adoxography

You're the reason for all our sins

@ emily - outfit

Serafina never really knew how to interact with people who were loud or boisterous or anything like that. They talked and talked and expected her to partake in conversation while she really rarely had anything to say on anything that they were talking about. Sera cared about very little that didn't happen in her text books or experiments, so it was rather hard to know what they expected from her. This was a whole world to which she didn't think she'd ever get truly used to and it tired her. She usually just said whatever she felt like saying, or nothing, which was also what she felt like contributing. Caring about what others expected was useless because really, it was them who should know better than to want her to take part in anything they were doing or speaking of. The people she was -relatively- close to had understood this. Those were her cousins and the two or three other people who called themselves her friends. She supposed that they were her friends, she wouldn't know and she didn't really care. She'd not grown up thinking about the importance of the title or people who fit it, she'd grown up valuing other things and friendship had never come up as even a possibility. How could it be possible, when there had been only two living people in the entire world?
    Emily was Rhea's friend and like Rhea, she had a lot to say and she said it loudly and quickly. Unlike Rhea, Emily was not her cousin and therefore Sera wasn't really obligated to be nice or tolerate her antics. On the other hand, she wasn't really doing anything wrong and she meant no harm, so reacting badly would not only get her an argument with her cousin, it would also be cruel. Sera was a lot of things but she wasn't cruel, not really. It was hard to find anything that she wanted to say, though. What could she answer to any of that? A model... she didn't care wether she looked like one or not, she had better things to do. All she had to do was look presentable like Pansy had told her and she could stop paying attention to her appearance. Being good at fashion was not something Sera valued but she also got the distinct feeling that it would include a lot more colour than she was comfortable with. Did she really have to let Emily pick her clothes? She knew what she was getting, the clerks were just getting it ready for her. She didn't need advise or help, but instead of denying the girl, she stayed quiet and watched her entertain herself.
    "No, that's..." Sera trailed off since her answer was obviously not needed or heeded at all and she wasn't one to waste words on thin air. Her eyes followed Emily as she trailed around the room, stepping away from the rack she'd been examining and taking a seat. Well, she supposed that while she was waiting for the clerk she might as well indulge her cousin's friend.

GREAT THINGS NEVER CAME FROM COMFORT ZONES

Emily had always had a knack for sticking her nose where it didn't belong and she always did mean well, but sometimes it came across a little too forcefully. She had never learned the power of a suggestion and instead preferred the bossier sounding demands and it was a trait that often times got her into trouble. It was also this same trait that made her seem like the local mean girl at Hogwarts, but she never intended to be portrayed that way, she did not ever mean to hurt peoples feelings when she was trying to help them, she was only trying to do just that be helpful, but she was often times misunderstood in her efforts. Emily just always felt that she knew best when it came to fashion at least when it came to people who obviously had very little interest in the subject. She approached people the way she would want to be approached, boldly and with no reservations. She did not like to waste time pretending and she preferred to get right down to the point of things and asking questions. After all, she did want to be in publication someday and it would be hard to be in that field if she was shy or had even the slightest of reservations about walking up to a stranger and asking them questions. 

Even still, Emily could kind of tell she had possibly crossed a line with Sera and she did not want to come off as pushy to her friend's cousin. "I'm sorry, I feel like I may have overstepped, please do not think ill of me, I only wanted to help, have you found something you like?" she asked hoping to smooth over any wrongdoing she may have caused. She thought to herself that she really did need to become more aware of people's feelings and more importantly their body language in these types of situations. She was so used to being around people that did not mind her advice or her boldness all that much and even somehow found her bossy nature to be a flattering quality in some ways and it had spoiled her into thinking that everyone might indeed feel that way about her, but that was most certainly not always going to be the case. She looked down hoping the girl was not too angry with her for her clear faux pas in etiquette.