Jessamine's Atelier
Stupid o'clock ~08:00Scene featuring Jessamine Leud @Hekazu and Valerie @Lady SeluneIt was a beautiful morning outside. The sun was rising above the horizon, flowers were opening their petals to greet the new day, birds had been singing for a few hours now… and Jess hated every second of it. Her alarm clock had gone off half an hour ago, yet here she was still in her bed with all of her arms holding on fast to the blanket drawn to her ears. She had an agreement with a friend, so this was the last thing that she should be doing now. They were going to be meeting for breakfast at the cafe and all. But despite swearing that she would get up, she wasn’t making much progress, if any.
“Do I really need those clients?” she asked herself a question, pushing the cover off her face so that she could have a look at the ceiling. The shadows were weird. Not in angles that she was used to. But that was probably just them being where they were supposed to be at this hour, when she would for the most time be snoozing away.
“I don’t, but on the other hand they won’t hurt me either. I could use the extra cash. For something. Right. I’ll count down from five and be up. Five, four, three, two, one…” she murmured to herself and… failed. She was still laying in her bed, under the blanket, face up to the ceiling.
“Dammit”, she cursed to herself.
Generally, Valerie was fairly fast when it came to moving about. The thing about being a internet spirit was that one could quite easily maneuver oneself around via the web, but ever the non-confrontational individual that she was, she only did that when someone gave her explicit permission to do so, so instead she was walking the old fashioned way to Jess’ house.
For anyone that knew Valerie well, the outfit she was wearing was thoroughly normal for her. Plaid, jeans, a beanie that kept the tips of her ears close to her head rather than popping off at emotion-revealing angles. Arriving at the door of her friend, she would press the doorbell once… And then again a few more times just for good measure.
And there it was. She was being expected. Jess hated not living up to expectations. Oh there was nothing more frustrating than to not live up to what others expected of you. “But Jessamine, why isn’t your design as detailed as I was expecting?” or “Oh, but I had thought you would have it done a day early since you said so.” And here she was, having promised that they’d get to the cafe this early. No, she was nowhere near ready to just walk out of the door. As the rings brought their friends to the mix, she finally managed to kick the blanket off and prop herself upright on the floor next to her inviting and warm bed, but returning just wasn’t on the list of things she could do. So instead, she headed straight to the front door, not looking to keep Valerie waiting.
The already fully dressed E-Cryptid would meet a woman still in her pyjamas on the other side of the door, Jess’s two eyes obviously still somewhat drooping despite her having been awake for half an hour by now.
“Morning. Come on in, I’ll get changed and we can go right after”, her voice droned without the least bit of enthusiasm, one arm rubbing her forehead while three others supported the door, the rest staying idle for the time being. Jess turned around, her single colour fuchsia red outfit not really fitting the best with the blackness of her partial exoskeleton or her usual attention to every detail ever, but it wasn’t something most people would get to see anyway, her everyday sleepwear.
The atelier featured numerous display pieces all around it, Jess having finished her full transition to Summer fashion and already starting work on the upcoming Autumn catalogue. The front featured a multitude of brochures detailing all that the seamstress could do for you, and a price chart that really didn’t seem to have an end to itself, climbing to sums few in Foxbridge could afford without taking a loan if it got to it. But they were all available for purchase, if one consulted the spider hybrid.
It was rare that Valerie actually entered Jess’ house. She wasn’t one for needing a custom seamstress, nor did she generally visit homes in general- she preferred her meetings public. What was rarer than her entering Jess’ house was Jess’ state however- Valerie didn’t think she’d ever actually seen the arachnid woman in anything but her best clothes.
“Wow, I didn’t think you ever took all the fancy stuff off.” The disadvantage of the skull-like facial covering was that it was hard for her to do things that might seem normal to other people- like raising her eyebrows, but still, the message was conveyed nonetheless. Walking through to the entranceway, the therianthrope would take a seat, indicating around.
“I’ll just wait here then, no need for me to watch you change.” A toothy smile to go along with her words.
Jess stopped in her tracks at the comment, the two higher up arms on her right side grasping at the edge of a shelf while the bottom one was used to point in Valerie’s direction.
“Well I wasn’t thinking on ever letting that image go, so you better not be telling”, she groaned and let go of the shelf, heading deeper into her shop and back to the upstairs area, flicking a switch to transfer any doorbell rings into the store rather than her home. She had someone who could handle that, in case somebody forgot that she wasn’t open at idiotic o’clock.
Soon the seamstress would return, this time in much more characteristic short and puffy sleeved dress that let her exoskeleton and craftsmanship both shine with its details. It was more striking red in its colour, with a very softly pink white for the bottom. Several embroideries decorated the surface in colours just a hint off the base nearly everywhere, whilst the larger, more attention grabbing images were sewn in silver thread.
“Thanks for the patience!” she smiled broadly as she returned to view from behind all the shelves.
“Now, I sure hope this breakfast will be as good as you have made me believe. And on a related note, the morning people better come up with something they’d want from me since I bother changing my schedule for this. Whoever thought waking up before twelve was a good idea should be…” her speech trailed off, ending up in her pushing her tongue far past her lips in an expression of disgust.
Valerie would raise her hands in mock-surrender, her toothy smile only growing wider.
“My lips are sealed, your secret is safe with me.” She would wait, patiently at first, and then a little impatiently… Although, to be fair, she wasn’t the sort of individual that liked sitting still for long. By the time Jess came down the stairs, Valerie had almost gotten to the point of just setting her laptop up here and accepting this as her new home. Luckily though, Jess would come down, and Valerie would get to admire the fine craftwork involved in her outfit.
“Jess, you can’t only exist between the hours of midday and two in the morning. There’s this thing called ‘dawn,’ have you ever seen it?” Good natured teasing would continue as Valerie stood up, tail wagging up a storm.
“Let’s get going then, shall we?”Jessamine followed Valerie’s eyes flitting about her dress, letting her lowest pair of arms fluff the skirt part a little so it would descend just where it belonged and not hike up to risk any embarrassing moments.
“Yes. I know it’s time to call it a night when dawn breaks on me working. Weren’t you tech nerds supposed to be the nocturnal sort?” she jabbed right on back, flicking one of her upper hands through a curl of her hair.
“But yes, better we get going or we’ll miss the window we were aiming for even harder. You did say that the fresh pastries you liked were often among the first to run out, no?”Jess opened the front door, pat one of the cute little pockets on the front of her dress to make sure her keys were with her and ensured the lock would click shut once the door was closed again.
“Come on then!” she called out to Valerie in case she wasn’t already out there with her and shut the door, even applying one of her sturdier keys to the safety lock set in the door, a heavy clink of metal signalling breaking through the structure would be ever so much harder now.
“Besides, it’s easy for you to think morning are tolerable. You don’t want to die harder if you get caffeine in your veins!” she made a friendly jab accompanied by a quite literal nudge with one fist on Valerie’s shoulder, another hand scratching her friend under the skull’s chin.
“I’ll have you know that I like to work when there’s the opportunity to talk to people.” She would stick a tongue out at Jess, before shrugging.
“They’re fresh pastries, of course they sell out fast… Hence why I get there early. Also, the coffee is freshly ground so it tastes so much better in the morning…” Ah, but the spider couldn’t drink coffee.
“Well, maybe that last part doesn’t apply so much to you. We’ll get you some hot chocolate and it’ll all be fiiiine.”
