312/Fashionable Expertise

Fashionable Expertise
Date of Scene:	27 August 2023
Location:	Four Clover Mall
Synopsis:	Adrien recruits his good friend Marinette to help him pick out clothes for Hinoiri. Nobody knows what the fashionista did to deserve this treatment, but what can you do?
Cast of Characters:	Hinoiri Kirara, Adrien Agreste, Marinette Dupain-Cheng

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Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara was waiting. Because she was ALWAYS punctual. It was one of her *incredibly* few positive traits. Either way, she glanced at the clock. Hopefully, the boy would arrive soon. She'd sent him a message to come to the mall, she'd gotten some money together (don't ask how. Trust me on this.) and was ready to experience 'fashion'. She'd even told him to feel free to bring his friend, the designer.

She'd done a liiiiittle bit of research since their last encounter. While yes, she did like leather and found the black to work really well with her aesthetic (it wasn't her fault so few things went with the color orange), she didn't want to go around wearing the corpses of animals. And so, vegan leather it was! Pleather, even. And while some people may have looked down on her for not wearing 'quality real leather', she thought anyone who thought their value came from wearing the hides of animals wasn't worth the time of someone as incredible as her.

So now, she was just sitting on a bench, holding her phone in that awkward way she did, legs crossed under her and waiting.

Time for experiment number 34 on interacting with 'normal' people. Here was hoping it went better than... than quite a few of hers.

Adrien Agreste has posed:
Adrien Agreste had indeed promised to help Hinoiri out with some shopping once he realized how uncomfortable wearing leather made her feel. How could he not feel bad about it? She hadn't realized it was real leather and once she learned what it indeed was, she looked as if she were about to be sick. While fashion wasn't exactly his own personal passion he still knew what it was like to want to be comfortable in what you wear, and could understand the concerns of someone who was apparently either vegan or vegetarian not wanting to wear actual leather.

Plus, it seemed they did have a bit in common so far as how they were both raised. Even if she was a bit more rebellious with her own interpretation of things.

A quick coffee had been made that morning with his brand new espresso machine he had snuck into the dorms (snuck is such a dirty word, but there it was), and now he was ready to go out on the proverbial town! He'd even messaged Marinette explaining the situation and asking for her help since he wasn't exactly up-to-date on women's fashion. That was more her area.

Punctuality was surprisingly one of his traits, too, though he was running a minute or two late if only due to being unfamiliar with the area. As soon as the blonde spots Hinoiri he raises a hand in greeting and calls out, "Hinoiri-san! Hello!" cheerfully.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng has posed:
"Tikki, what am I going to do? He asked me to go shopping with him! I can't just go shopping with him! Homework! Yes I gotta do homework!" Marinette is in a tizzy as she panics about the whole thing. What was she supposed to do? Just go along and act like she wasn't pining over Adrien? How would that even work?

Tikki flies up and right into Marinette's face, "Marinette, you are forgetting why he asked you along. His friend needs help with fashion and you are great at that! You can help her out and impress Adrien at the same time."

"That's if I can even talk around him. You know how I get, Tikki." She frowns thinking about all the ways that she has fumbled over her words in just the past several months. It was a disaster. This was a disaster. Why did she agree to do this? Because Adrien asked her of course. She sighs, "Okay lets go to it." She holds open her purse and Tikki flies in. All set. She even makes sure she is dressed before leaving this time.

Once at the mall, she makes her way towards the shop where the Adrien and his friend wait. "Hi... Adrien. Whose friend your?" She stumbles over her words and blushes deeply. In her own mind she chastises herself for that one. She turns to the girl and smiles, "Hello, I'm Marinette. Nice to meet you."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara glanced up before climbing/crawling/shimmying off the bench. Depending on how you look at it. Seriously, legs were weird. Especially when two were so much longer than... anyway, moving on.

"Hey, Adrien-san," she said, giving a smile before holding out her fist. See, hand shakes were hard but fist bumps? She understood THOSE at least. Hopefully he did too.

Then they were approached by a weird blue haired girl. Hinoiri crossed her arms and looked the girl up and down. Who in the world... But then she said Adrien's name and she relaxed slightly. She even chuckled a bit at the 'whose friend your'. Oh yeah. This girl definitely wasn't someone she'd need to work hard to trick.

"Marinette? Nice to meet you. Hinoiri," she said, offering a fistbump as well. "Adrien-san gives you quite the glowing praise, so I'm guessing you must be pretty good at this. Guessing you've designed his wardrobe, then? So I leave my fashion in your capable hoo-- hands," she corrected herself quickly. "Better not screw it up or I'll make your life Tartarus," she said in a playful, teasing tone...

Even though she, definitely, would do it.

Adrien Agreste has posed:
"Make sure you bring me some cheese!" Plagg was of course quick to remind Adrien before he had headed out. Because he did owe him some--It was a little difficult to find in Japan, and though he had some on order, there was still a bit of time to wait for it ot be delivered. He really, really hoped he wasn't going to have to change into Cat Noir too often until it arrived. So the outing at the mall did have a double purpose for him. Even so his main priority right now was the company in which Adrien found himself.

When Hinoiri offers the fist bump he instinctively reaches out to dap her fist with his own. He has to bite back the urge to say 'Pound it!' because ... well it was a greeting in this instance and not a congratulatory measure. Plus it just didn't seem right saying it while not Cat Noir. "Sorry I'm late," he offers even if it was only by a few minutes. Good manners were always worth keeping up with.

"Marinette! Thanks for coming out," he greets warmly only to take a step to the side gesturing to Hinoiri so the two could properly greet one another. "Marinette this is Hinoiri-san. Or just Hinoiri I suppose," he corrects himself with a chuckle, only to explain for his friend, "None of us are originally from Japan so it just seemed easier to use our first names." There's a little awkward shift as he tucks his hands into his pockets bunching his white overshirt around his waist in the process.

"Marinette has designed a few items for me to wear, but not my entire wardrobe," he admits with a little chuckle. "I like to have a bit of my own style, too." Which in this case was... casual, easy to move around in, not too hot, not too flashy. Really he looked like most guys around here except for the fact that there were absolutely. No. Wrinkles. In any of his clothes. Not his t-shirt, not his overshirt, not his pants. Immaculate.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng has posed:
Marinette smiles. "Nice to meet you Hinoiri. Yeah, I only designed a few items for Adrien." Thats a lie. She designed a lot of items for Adrien, its just he doesn't know about most of them. Heck she had gifts made up for him for years to come. "I designed a derby hat for a contest that Adrien wore for a photo shoot. Also there was the designs for my blog right? The ones that look good on both men and women?" She smiles about the fashion stuff.

Then she remembers that Adrien is there, "I mean umm... Yeah I don't need to design everything for Adrien because he is already perfect. I MEAN his clothes! They are perfect. They look so good." She blushes and seems to go into a fantasy state for a moment before shaking it off.

"You're welcome Adrien." She got a sentence out. That's a start she thinks anyway.

"So Hinoiri, what do you like? Like colors, things, animals? she asks curiously. She had brought her notebook along and has it open to sketch. SHe won't be making clothes today but she can at least help find some similar to what she likes.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara at least didn't seem to mind that he was late. But then, she took it to just mean another way in which she was better than everyone around her. Punctuality was important, after all.

Never mind the sheer number of times SHE was late. SHE had an excuse so they didn't count.

"Yeah, clothes and style and all that, seems to be a pretty big deal here. I'll be honest, back home they weren't really as big a..." Then she trailed off. Now that she thought about it, they often DID have a lot of special outfits for festivals. She couldn't remember anyone wearing the same outfit during any of the parties, either. She'd just not cared, so they royal designers had just made her an offshoot of whatever Sora wore. "Well, I guess they just weren't as big a deal to me or my mentor," she admitted.

"Derby... hat?" she asked. "Like... roller derby? They have hats for that?" She had absolutely no idea about fashion. "Your... blog? That like... a fashion book thing?" she asked. Nope, she had no idea what a blog was.

She cocked an eye at the comment of Adrien being 'perfect'. She glanced back at Adrien. Then Marinette. Then shrugged. "Eh. He's... cool, I guess? I think perfect might be upselling a little. No offense, Adrien. You have a good personality, at least. So that's good."

She then glanced back to Marinette. A sketchbook? Well, it seemed the girl WAS dedicated. "What... I like. Huh." She looked down at herself. "Well... honestly? I do like this," she said before tugging on her black, spiked and leather jacket. "I guess... hmmmm. Black is nice. Orange. A little pink, but too much and I'll gag. Red's always cool. Nothing too bright and cheerful, my mentor was alllllllways surrounding everything with that and I just need a break," she said before giving a light shudder. "Things I like... hmmmm. Bikes, I guess. Oh, nothing furry or fuzzy. Not a real fan of like... fuzzy things. Nothing made of animals, either. That's just weird. Stuff... that's imposing. A bit grandiose. Powerful, authoritative..." she mumbled, looking thoughtful.

Then shook her head. "But hey, you're the expert. You've been doing clothes a lot longer than I have, so I'll trust your judgment. Oh. And absolutely no rainbows or glitter."

Adrien Agreste has posed:
Perfect? Adrien gives a little nervous laugh at both those remarks while he shifts to rub at the back of his neck working out a bit of tension such a remark caused. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate the thought, just... The term felt a bit loaded these days with all his father's expectations. "Thanks, Marinette. I try." Does he really though? At least Hinoiri was a good distraction from such thoughts.

"Derby as in racing. Horse racing in this case. It's an event held once a year so many dress up for it since it's a special occasion," he explains simply. It wasn't as if a derby was something that was held everywhere that was easy enough to explain away. "My father and I were often invited by the Mayor's family to attend." Let's leave it at that.

While the two start to contemplate what to wear, he crosses his arms over his chest and rubs at his chin thoughtfully. "Oh, right!" His fingers snap recalling something he wanted to bring up to Marinette. "You don't like actual leather though, right? Are you vegan like Naru-chan?" His head tilts toward Marinette, "Probably want to stay with faux leather and cottons or synthetics to make sure she's comfortable with it."

A rather solemn, knowing nod is given at the end. "Glitter gets everywhere."

Marinette Dupain-Cheng has posed:
Marinette smiles and flips through the notebook. She comes upon the familiar hat that she made for Adrien to wear. She turns it and shows it to Hinoiri. "This is a Derby hat. Its just a style like a fedora or a trilby." She smiles happily. "This one was inspired by the pigeons in Paris. I didn't use real feathers for it either. Its all fake feathers."

She turns through the notebook to a blank page and starts sketching. She has an idea about an outfit design for Hinoiri. "What if we did this." She sketches a V-neck orange t-shirt top with a black vegan leather short jacket overtop of it. A cute belt with an oval buckle on it. One the legs is a pair of black jeans with worn coloring over the knees, even slightly torn on one knee. She then sketches an ascot around the neck in pink which really is accented by the orange of the top. "What about something like this?"

She turns to Adrien, "Sorry! I didn't... you know." She blushes trying to explain that she didn't mean to make him feel uncomfortable. "You're right... Glitter is crazy!"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara frowned a little at that. "Horse racing. And what exactly is... no, nevermind," she said before sighing. "It'll probably just annoy me if I find out. I'll stick to biking for now." Bit of a weird reaction, but... hey. "And no. I'm just a vegetarian. I just can't stand the taste and texture of meat. Very... icky," she said with a light shudder. "Wearing it just kind of creeps me out. Like wearing somethings corpse around and just, ugh. No thank you. We didn't have anything like that back home. Cotton sounds fine. Breathes, too."

She shared a solemn nod with Adrien. "Indeed. Ten seconds of glitter can mean three months of picking it out of your mane," she said flatly.

"Hat's not bad, though. Pigeons, huh? Not sure why you'd want to take inspiration from those. But at least it looks like you did a good job on it," she said. Maybe this girl was pretty good at it, after all.

However, upon seeing the outfit, she grinned. "Well well well. It seems Adrien wasn't exagerating just because he thought you were cute or something, you've got a pretty good hand there. And that outfit... seems pretty cool. I'd wear something like that." To be honest, well... she didn't see the full point of all of it, but it looked good enough. And she wasn't so arrogant and demanding as to bitch about something that someone made wholesale for her. "Though, I'm curious. What's that for?" she asked, motioning towards the ascot. "Is this for the colder months, or does that thing provide some function I'm not aware of?"

Adrien Agreste has posed:
Adrien Agreste just nods toward Marinette at the apology. "It's okay. I've just been feeling a bit pressured lately by my father with the new school and everything. It's just in my head," he assures with a shake of his head to deny there was anything actually wrong. Maybe there was, but this wasn't the place to dwell on it.

Instead he blinks a bit in surprise at Hinoiri's remark about complimenting Marinette because he thought she was cute. "Oh, no, Marinette's really skilled, honest. She's very creative as you see."

His attention shifts to the sketchpad she'd brought gesturing at it pointedly. "I think these would look good on you, Hinoiri. It looks like it'd be easy to find these things, too."

Marinette Dupain-Cheng has posed:
"Oh that is an ascot. Its just a fashion accessory. Its rather light and made of cotton so it won't be too hot. Its just there to look cool and add some color to your outfit." She smiles and even starts sketching a pair of boots to go with the outfit. They have a low heel on them and are jet black with silver studs making a rather cute heart pattern on the sides. "How about boots like this?"

From there she looks around the mall. "Do you want to buy an outfit like this one or would you rather I get the materials and make the outfit?" She asks curiously. "I can do either. Buying the actual outfit would be faster but if I make it you know it will be quality made." She smiles happily, quite proud that she can say that much.

"What do you think Adrien?" She asks curiously, not thinking about who she is talking to. She is in full designer mode at the moment.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara gave a light snort. "Oh, your overly demanding dad pushing you harder and making your over exert yourself? What a shocker," she said with 100% unabashed sass. "You know, my advice still stands. One way or another, something's going to have to change. Either you'll have to push back or you'll eventually crumble. Might as well go down swinging."

Then her eyes went back to the sketch. "Hmmm. Wait, you can make something like this? Yeah, sure. Sounds great. Actually..." Hmmm. She suddenly just reached out and grabbed the sleeve of Marinette's shirt. Seeming to be analyzing it rather closely... before nodding. "You know what? Yeah. I'm guessing you made this shirt, right?" She let it go. "It seems you know what you're doing. And I'd rather have something that is good and proper than mass produced garbage. Though... for the boots? Lose the heart. Make it like... a sunset or something. So, where do we go for the pieces?" she asked.

She then glanced back towards Adrien. "So, I'm curious. You ever try designing anything? Or are you strictly a 'I wear, but don't make' sort?"

Adrien Agreste has posed:
Just as Adrien had said, Marinette was indeed a professional and quite capable when she was focused on a task she was skilled with. He can't help but smile a bit with pride at watching his friend at work. He didn't really ever get to see her while she was working on a task. The thought is broken quickly when Hinoiri speaks again.

"Ah, well. I was rather expecting it with just starting out somewhere new. It'll be fine. I've made a few friends at the dorm so it's nice so far," he assures quickly with hands lifting to ward off any further concern about his father. Or any other topic that might bring up stress for either him or Hinoiri.

"Me? Design something?" Adrien considers this a moment only to shake his head after a bit of thought. "No, I don't think creative things like that are really up my alley. I prefer more physical things. Like fencing! Or basketball."

Looking back toward Marinette he suggests, "Maybe we should walk through the mall and see if anything else catches your eyes?"

Marinette Dupain-Cheng has posed:
"We are going to need to go to a fabric shop. That's where this will start. I brought my sewing machine along so I can make things. I Should have some orange thread and black as well. I may need to pick up some pink thread." She comments as she thinks about what she needs and what she has supply wise.

At the request she changes the boots a bit to look more like a sunrise or a sunset. She marks it as rhinestones so it will sparkle without being glitter. "I think that will work. some rhinestones will catch the light nicely and give them a sparkly look without being messy.

As her top is felt and touched she smiles and nods. "Oh yes I made this myself. I had fun doing it too. She smiles and looks down at her top. "Okay lets get the stuff to do this."

She smiles at Adrien and for the moment, loses focus on her designing. "You would create stuff good!" She comments trying to be encouraging but sounding like an idiot. "Trust in yourself." She smiles at least having got that much out. Three words can be so hard to get out you know.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara gave a shrug. "Yeah, moving can be rough. Nothing quite like losing everything you'd ever known and trying to get yourself back on your hoo-- feet," she said, a somewhat frustrated look on her face. "I should probably get ready to move into the dorms myself. Can you believe they want most of us to have room mates? Ugh. Luckily I managed to get a solo room, but I think I'd go absolutely insane if I had to deal with someone else's junk all day. At least back home I had a room at the castle so I didn't need to share my space with any of the other students."

However, the fact he hadn't designed anything made her smile. "Ahhhhh. So there ARE some things you don't do and actually don't want to do? Fascinating. And here I half expected to hear you were practicing that as well. Is that why you're hanging out with Marinette, hoping to fill up those gaps in your knowledge pool?" she asked in a teasing tone.

Only for Marinette to open her mouth and just make Hinoiri give her a bewildered look. "... So... are you still getting used to speaking Japanese or getting used to speaking with people?" she asked. "Wait, no, this is that 'creative genius' thing, isn't it? The whole... 'She may sound like an idiot, but she's brilliant enough at this stuff we pretend she's normal' kind of thing? I gotcha. But Marinette, girl. Trust me. Write down some of what you say before you say it. People are going to think you're weird if you go around like that and not everyone is going to see the genius that makes up for it. Luckily for you, Adrien seems to at least have good enough tastes to recognize true talent when he sees it, no?" she asked.

The worst part? She thought she was being *nice.* She started walking, glancing around as they went. "Right... so... pink thread... Fabric shop. Huh. How... do... you even find things here? I'll be honest. Still not quite used to the malls you have here. We had them at home but they were nowhere... near... as big... or confusing..."

Adrien Agreste has posed:
Adrien Agreste shakes his head a little bit at the pair while they disuss options. Fabric shop. He wouldn't really know what to do in one, but could admire some of the things there easily enough. "If that's where we need to go, we can do that." Easily so. He starts for the mall to read over the descriptor of shops that were there hoping to find a good location on the map.

"I'm not entirely sure, but this should help us find it." A glance is cast over toward Hinoiri with mild amusement, "You really take the 'your home is your castle' thing to heart, huh?" At least he didn't seem to take it too literally even if that is how she meant it.

"I don't know. I don't think I'd mind having a roommate if they were nice. I've got a single room though." We can all guess how he got it. He doesn't feel the need to bring that hot topic up once again though as he turns his attention over the store listings.

When Hinoiri brings up the way Marinette talks though? That causes a quick side-eye in the direction of the girls. Hopefully this wasn't going to be another thing like with Chloe, but... It really just seemed as if Hinoiri wasn't very good at socializing so far. "Everyone gets tongue tied on occasion. Even me!" Well. Not as ADRIEN but that didn't need explaining at all.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng has posed:
The blue haired girl listens to what Hinoiri says. It hurts a little but what is she going to do? Say its because of how much she loves Adrien? No way. "Oh I am no genius. I just am anxious... you know?" She nods. "Yeah... writing stuff down... that will work!" She writes down something and tries to read it off, "I don't errr... Know this if will work?" She facepalms.

"Oh right! That would help!" She looks at the map of the different stores and smiles. "That one looks like a winner." She points to a store on the second floor. "The jacket is going to be the harder part but I've got it though." She smiles and starts walking her way toward an escalator.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara glanced to the mall map. She... really didn't like having to use one of those. It always felt like... she was losing when she did that. Admitting she didn't know where everything was. Ugh. However, she jerked a little bit when he mentioned the castle. "Oh. Yeah. You know how it is. Home is where the heart is and all that. Where... you felt safe and secure," she said, the fake smile fading for a moment. The thoughtful frown on her face. "Yeah. I think I'd want to strangle someone if I had to listen to them do all of their little parties and experiments all the time. Ugh. Or worse," she muttered. Never mind the fact she'd likely be keeping THEM up.

However, she glanced at Marinette after a moment. Tongue tied... Oh. Ohhhhhh. "I see. Got it." She then reached out and patted Marinette on the head? "I know it must be a bit nerve wracking meeting someone as amazing as me, but it's fine. I already think you're cool. You don't have to be so nervous that I'm going to think you're an idiot or anything. You've already got my approval for your clothes design and trust me, I do not give my approval lightly. So relax. I'm not going to bite you." She then started walking. Completely missing the point as to WHY Marinette was so anxious. "And hey, if anyone gives you trouble, I'll toss them down the stairs if they don't back off." ... That... that was a joke, right?

Adrien Agreste has posed:
Adrien Agreste steps to the side so Marinette can see the board better to choose the place to go. At this point he was just along for the ride and to perhaps offer a suggestion here or there. As well as keep an eye out for snack shops that may carry cheese to placate Plagg.

When it seems Hinoiri reassures Marinette over the situation, and starts to head off, he chuckles quietly. "I think she's just joking," he asides to Marinette. "I hope." No one really wanted to get thrown down stairs! Still, he tips his head forward in a 'lets go!' gesture flashing a grin at his friend. "I've never actually been in a fabric shop before. This should be an interesting experience from this side of the fashion business."

Marinette Dupain-Cheng has posed:
Marinette blushes and smiles to Hinoiri. How does someone politely say 'Its not you, its HIM!' She doesn't know the words. Even if she had the words, she couldn't say them. So she just goes with it. "I will be okay. I just... Need to focus." "Okay lets go this way."

Marinette smiles to Adrien and then to Hinoiri, leading the way up to the escalator and to the store in question. "This is the place. Look at all the pretty fabrics!" She comments as she heads in and starts looking around. "I'm going to need to talk to my mom and dad about some more money so I can get more fabrics!" She smiles a little. "This outfit is going to be nice!"