knickers

[keep_surviving]

Who| Diana, and you [open to all]
What| Diana's just browsing.
Where| Cushion Pushin’ Upscale Lingerie (it’s very classy), First floor // FAYZ Freaks Fiesta (Merchandise), Third Floor
When| First Week
Warnings/Notes| It's an arena post with Diana, just, be prepared.

Past the window mannequins dressed in the more conservative pyjamas and nightwear, surrounded by a racks of lace, silk, frills and polka dots, is Diana. Killing time before the next replenishment of food.

Though she's hardly about to strip down and actually try on any of them, especially the corsets, which there's a ridiculous amount of (seriously, they must have come back into fashion hard). It doesn't stop her from looking around.

Because some of these sets are actually pretty damn cute. Like that yellow, white-spotted one.

So she walks around the 3 for 2 bins of knickers, racks of comfortable looking nighties and line after line of bras to pick a few out.

She holds them against her body, scrutinizing herself in the mirror then turning to look up at the ceiling, guessing the camera's location with rather surprising accuracy.

Then she pulls a questioning expression and raises her hand, shaking it in so-so gesture, as if asking the audience for their opinion before nodding or shaking her head, putting it back and browsing again.

------

Diana is fully aware that there's merchandise of her (her Azula and Diana shipping shirts are a testament to that) but it doesn't prepare her for the first sighting of FAYZ Freaks Fiesta.

It's terrible. And cheesy. And hilarious so, of course, Diana loves it and is already wearing a 'It's just a FAYZ' shirt.

What baffles her is that what seems to be the focus of FAYZ merchandise is a large collection of snowglobes.

Getting closer, she can see the typical town backdrops in some but others have desert or water. And the confetti inside them all varies in shape and colour.

But something about every single one looks familiar. The little town backdrop isn't any little town. It's a Perdido Beach.

She leans down to get a better look at the plastic souvenirs and sees familiar faces moulded into little figures and placed amongst the scenery.

Sometimes in less than pleasant scenarios, like a little Lana trapped under a truck with a little dog stood beside her.

And there, pressed against the glass in the one closet to her, tiny face twisting in pain for touching the barrier, is a Sam.

Diana shakes her head. “Oh, you cheeky bastards.”

Comments

[gardienne]

Who else would be in an underwear shop but Eponine?

This might be the middle of the arena, where she's supposed to be fighting to the death, but Eponine would rather ignore that. She lugs a carrier bag with her, filled with dolls of herself and Eva and Howard and Orc and Ian and Parker and Mona and Sigma. But the dolls are disregarded in the face of proper corsets - oh, and bloomers! Corset and bloomers at last!

From the changing rooms comes the sound of laughter as Eponine attempts to lace herself into the corset she's chosen. But even over her laughter, she hears footsteps, and she calls out, trying to sound threatening,

"Who's there? Get out, or I will kill you! I have a weapon!" She has her ice skates, and a half laced corset. She's not coming out if she can help it.

[keep_surviving]

Diana pauses for the briefest moment in her browsing before a tiny smirk tugs at the corner of her mouth and she continues, picking up a rather nice blue set.

"Kill me with what, Eps? Exposed nipples? I think I can handle that."

Apparently Diana is just never going to find Eponine threatening ever again.

[gardienne]

"Exposed nip- GOD! DIANA!" Eponine yells from inside the changing room. She's ripping off the bloomers and sliding out of the corset and dragging on her dress as fast as she possibly can, lest Diana bang her door open.

"Always you are so crude. GO AWAY!"

[keep_surviving]

"Aww, you don't mean that Eps." She calls playfully as she tosses the blue bra and knickers into the basket she's carrying with her. Which is mostly full of underwear because not being able to change your pants in the arena is the worst. Yuck.

"You love me really."

[gardienne]

"Eponine, if you please!" Eponine hastily drags her dress on, and opens the door, clutching the hangers from the underwear, and pointing them at Diana.

"I do not love you. My love is dead. And you know it."

[keep_surviving]

"Why are you so against nicknames, babydoll?"

It's very hard not to react to the mess that is Eponine's face right now and for a moment Diana wonders if the Capitol have deliberately made it easy to get infected so she'll have a slow death in the arena. This gives Diana a brief pang of sympathy for the other girl. Eponine really is pitiful, it's almost unreal.

Then Diana pulls a face of suppressed laughter and she has to turn her head and hide her mouth behind her hand for a moment. That whole line was just too dramatic not too be funny.

"Right. Of course. So sorry."

[gardienne]

"STOP LAUGHING!" Eponine launches herself at Diana, trying to use a hanger to poke her eyes.
"I am SICK of you laughing at me. I shan't have it any more!"

[keeplivingkeepfighting]

She could just hear Jo's voice in her head: how there were better things to do than shop, but a girl's best friend was a cute pair of underwear; it was the key to confidence! So here she was, perusing a store the likes of which weren't found in her home. There were countless options and each more cute than the last, it was entrancing.

She was so distracted that she almost didn't notice the other person in the store. She darted behind one of the mannequins and spied on the woman from what she perceived to be a safe distance. She was attractive and seemed to be modeling some of the things she'd picked up, which just left Meg staring.

At least until she picked up some kind of thing and held it to her chest. She'd never seen anything like that before....what the hell? In all her confusion, she quite literally forgot she was supposed to be hiding.

She stepped out from behind her cover and pointed accusingly at the weird round lacy thing the other woman had. "What in the hell is that thing?"

[keep_surviving]

Diana pauses in her shopping for a moment to look over at the other woman.

Slowly, she turns her gaze down to the bra in her hand, back to the woman, then to all racks of delicately decorated soft cups before back to the woman again.

"I'm hoping you're not meaning the bras because otherwise I'm gonna have to ask why the hell you're even in here."

[keeplivingkeepfighting]

"For the panties, of course!" Meg gave her a look like she'd just asked the most stupid question in the world. "Where else is a gal supposed to find a decent pair of panties?"

But what the hell was a bra? Why was it important? Could you kill someone with it, was that why this lady wanted one? It didn't seem like it from how she'd been holding. Maybe it, like, protected your chest? Meg couldn't figure it out.

[keep_surviving]

Her brows raise high. "You mean this?" Diana dangles the bra infront of her. "Really? This? It's a bra. You know, for holding your tits in place so they don't hang and bounce and generally get in the way or hurt when you move around too much?"

"I know some girls can get away without wearing them but I'm sorry to say trying to run with these things-" She gestures to her own chest. "-would hurt like hell if I don't support them."

[keeplivingkeepfighting]

Meg looked at them and then looked to the other woman. "That's a good point, they do just kinda go everywhere, don't they? And when you're trying to shoot someone, they can really mess with your aim and reaction time!"

This was a very serious conversation she felt she was having. She hadn't thought about it before, but something like that would be really useful. Jo had always worn something sort of binding to keep her chest from hurting when she was running, but Jo also had a smaller chest than Meg and wore that thing like a shirt, so she hadn't payed much attention to it.

"Huh...maybe I'll get one. Thanks." She was a hundred percent sincere in that gratitude.

[keep_surviving]

Diana isn't really sure what to make of that first sentence. Mainly because what kind of person lives in a reality where guns are a thing but bras aren't?

"Oh, yeh. It's a total bummer." Way to be subtle in your sarcasm, Diana.

She waves to one of the racks on her right. "No problem. I'd check those out. Sports bras. More hold."

bras because let's make this awkward

[shenunigans]

Once everything with Eponine had been said and done, Dave had been quick to run from the situation. It isn't out of fear or sadness, mostly a desire to stop himself from making it worse. He doesn't like to lash out, even if he can have a temper. He has people to find and things to do, he'll do better when he can focus on something else.

He crinkles his nose at the lingerie store when he first sees it, but he knows at least a few people he'd like to see who would be up and in there in a heartbeat. He steps in, looking as disinterested as he can in the lingerie, tensing when he notices someone in there.

"Now's as good a time as any to get a five finger discount, huh?" He quirks a brow, red eyes trained on the girl as if he's not sure whether he can trust her.

dont you like dianas lovely boobies dave?

[keep_surviving]

Diana's in the middle of holding a pink dotted bra to her chest and inspecting herself in a mirror when Dave interrupts her.

She recognizes that face. Well, part of that face. She remembers it being attached to Eponine's while on a bouncy castle.

But she doesn't mention it, yet. Instead she smirks and winks.

"It's not stealing if no one else owns it anymore."

of course he does

[shenunigans]

To his credit, Dave's cheeks only heat the slightest bit when he realises what she's doing. It's kind of hard not to flick his eyes down and look quickly before raising them to her face, only to see her wink. Damn.

He isn't precisely in a flirting mood, what with feeling bad about Eponine, so he lets it roll past him as best he can. "Well, the customer service is awful anyway. I can't blame you." He huffs out an amused laugh and turns to reach for the first bra he can, rolling his eyes as he holds it to his chest. "Where else am I meant to get my girls fitted?" Being an overwhelming nerd is always a sure fire way to feel more comfortable.

they so pretty!

[keep_surviving]

She makes a soft noise of amusement at his attempts at jokes, putting the bra back in place and running her finger across some silken knickers.

"Well, if you're looking for something to lift and spread I'd try on the left." She catches her bottom lip between her teeth playfully, still smirking. "Sorry, lift and 'separate'."

And then she continues browsing as if that hadn't happened.

just like dave's

[shenunigans]

The more this progresses, the less standoffish Dave feels. He wants to keep the allure of cool up for as long as possible, but he's in a lingerie store with a girl who is both pretty attractive and kind of a flirt. Which sucks, because he's kind of a flirt too. He knows the cameras are into things like this, but he feels guilty even thinking up snappy come backs that would play into the moment well.

"I'm sure this store has seen a lot of those positions." He says it in a coolly observant tone, without any flirty implications. He thinks.

"I haven't seen you around before." Which is a roundabout way of trying to get her name. "But I guess they like to keep us busy here."

sorry this took so long

[keep_surviving]

She doesn't even bother turning to look at him as he speaks, turning her focus to nightwear instead.

"Oh, well, I've seen you."

She picks up and scrutinizes 3 more garments before finishing her sentence, looking at him once again, eyes twinkling playfully between dark lashes.

"On the bouncy castle."

[carnagecarnival]

Even as an avox, there are some things what draw. Glitter and shine and shimmer are things he has always found appreciation for. He tells himself now, as he enters the store, that it's not because he's choosing such things for himself of will he ain't supposed to have, but because where there's glitter, there's often a mess.

He finds Diana instead, and he hears her voice reach him, making him go stiff and still right there in the entry. He doesn't know if she's noticed but in case she does, he tries to keep his head down.

It's incredible how much a seven foot tall troll with horns can make himself become a non-presence when he so tries.

[keep_surviving]

It doesn't take too long for Diana to do one of her frequent pauses to check she's not being snuck up on. This is actually thanks to their mentors continuous attempts to drill arena techniques into Diana.

It's then that she spots The Initiate.

"Frayza." She greets him, smiling, unaware of his current state. "I haven't heard about you since Zula was stomping around complaining you'd been arrested."

[carnagecarnival]

Azula had been complaining about his arrest? Good. He hopes it was sufficiently disparaging. The worse he sounded by her the better, it would dissociate the rest of District 5 from being blown out and smeared to wall paint.

The call of the old nickname has him pull himself straighter, just to show he is in fact listening. But he doesn't look at her and he doesn't smile back.

His hair is cropped short, exposing the ears what have been shredded up un the undersides, both all indigo bloodied and scabbed over, but only the torn remains of what may have been a fin on one of them. His cheeks are strangely hollow and his eyes more so.

[keep_surviving]

She'd started making her way towards him. "Honestly, she'll be giving you a real earful when we get out of this. She likes you, you know? Probably because you actually have a chance of winning at some point-"

Her eyes widen as she gets a good look at him, stopping short in her approach. "Woah. You look like shit."

There's no way less than a week of arena did that to him. In the back of her head she remembers the state of Eponine after being caught trying to break someone out. Looks like the treatment was rough to everyone.

[carnagecarnival]

Shit. No. She shouldn't be as said to like him, maybe past tense but... oh, okay, just for the win. That wasn't so bad. District five might still me fine.

He accepts her observation, simple note. It's kind of funny, in a distant sense. There were some what would say he's exactly as he ought to look, cut down and cut up. Technically, he's been made clean by them, purified and better. But all still, this remains a state unnatural, enough others are being to notice.

He breathes deep, the air whistling though his teeth and shuddering on its way out. He remains attentive, head lifting just a little. Just enough he can see, without making eye contact, she's fine, she stayed out and away from the harsh noise.

[keep_surviving]

His silence makes her uncomfortable. Tense.

She shifts her weight, hoping that will somehow lift the turning in her stomach.

She can't look away from the sorry figure infront of her. She's seen deterioration in people before. The worst kind. In alot of people. In kids. She should be used to it. But this sudden switch is disorientating.

It's not natural. They might not talk often but even she knows it's not in him to be silent.

"You're being pretty quiet, Frayza."