To Live Another Day 12

To Live Another Day

Episode Twelve: Preparations For The Ball

Given the limited time available until that night's ball began, the men and women of the group decided to take their separate ways in shopping, so that they wouldn't have to wait for each other, as there would not be enough time for that. As expected, the men finished their tuxedo shopping swiftly. There were only so many variations of the classic suits and all they really needed to do was find some in the appropriate sizes.

"This is a masquerade ball," Zelgadis reminded as if it was a vital fact and in a sense it was.

"Indeed," Xellos agreed in his usual annoying overly friendly tone. "Well, it's been fun shopping with you, friends," he added for the purpose of annoying Zelgadis, who would not so freely use the term of friend, especially when referring to Xellos. "Now if you'll excuse me, I will embark on the journey to purchase an appropriate mask on my own, farewell." He did a mock bow like an actor in a theater thanking the audience for their thundering applause, then he faded away.

"Good riddance," Zelgadis muttered under his breath. Gourry, as expected, just looked confused. If he showed up short of a mask at the masquerade ball, surely Zelgadis would get blamed for not reminding him. It wasn't so bad really, Zelgadis was annoyed by Xellos, a lot of people were, but Gourry, jellyfish brain aside, was an okay traveling companion and thus shopping companion. Besides, Zelgadis wouldn't admit it, but he would get terribly bored on his own, after all, hunting down vague clues that might lead to his cure and pillaging, without burning, random temples and museums of magical artifacts, was not as entertaining as plain and simple shopping. Shopping was an activity best endured with some form of company. "Let's go get ourselves some masks."

"Masks?" Gourry asked in puzzlement, which came as no surprise to Zelgadis. "Why do we need masks?"

"It's a... a mask party," it was a simple small word translation to the oh so complicated term of masquerade ball.

"Oh!" Gourry exclaimed in understanding. Then smiling in more amusement than the realization was due, he followed Zelgadis out of the store with their purchases neatly folded in bags. They went hunting for a mask shop and were able to find several down the street. They went in and started to browse, observing the vast assortment of masks available.

"Cats, rabbits, birds..." Zelgadis didn't seem too fond of any of the masks right away, but he knew he couldn't reject them all.

"How about this one?" Gourry picked up a mask and handed it to Zelgadis.

"A peacock?" Zelgadis didn't think it fit him at all. He looked back at Gourry, trying to discern if the blond was joking or not. "Really?"

Gourry nodded, sticking to his suggestion. "It has nice feathers and the colors stand out and kind of match."

It was true that the colors of this particular peacock mask did match him in a sense. They weren't exactly the same colors as one would find in a peacock, perhaps feathers of different birds were mixed in. The blue was a more intense shade than Zelgadis' skin and lavender details that matched his hair along with glittery traces of silver adorned it. The rest of the masks were just as colorful and glittery, so he couldn't reject it on those reasons alone, or he would reject all of them and remain mask-less, which would be unacceptable for a masquerade.

"I think it's cool," Gourry commented.

"I suppose I'm never going to find one that I actually like." He stroked the soft feathers, it honestly wasn't so bad and it wasn't as elaborate as some of the other masks which bordered being full hats. He tried it on and felt oddly empowered. Zelgadis, though he would deny it if anyone pointed it out, had a fair amount of shyness. The feeling of hiding his face without having to look away was subconsciously comforting. The mask wouldn't hide his chimeraism as he had the silly notion to think for a wishful moment, but it didn't matter. Maybe this odd sensation that he felt upon wearing the mask was part of the mystique of the masquerade, regardless of how cheesy that might sound. "Actually, I think I might like this one after all."

"I thought you would," Gourry grinned, happy that his suggestion had been useful. He picked up a few different masks and tried them on. "What do you think?" Gourry tried on a white rabbit mask with ears that were so long that gravity pulled them in front of his vision. He pushed the ears back, but if he tilted his head forward, they would fall in front of his eyes again.

Considering how Lina was noticeably shorter than Gourry, if he intended to dance with her, and Zelgadis wasn't sure why he assumed he did, then the ears might be an obstacle. "Troublesome," was Zelgadis' summarized verdict.

Without being discouraged, Gourry put the rabbit mask back in its place and tried on a calico cat mask, then sneezed. The mask' synthetic material was exceptionally fuzzy. "This one makes me sneeze," Gourry took off the mask and placed it back on its previous place on the shop shelves without even waiting for Zelgadis' judgment on it. It was a troublesome mask too.

Zelgadis spotted a peculiar mask and picked it up, not sure if he would seriously suggest it or not. It at least fit Gourry. "What about this one," he passed the mask over to Gourry.

The blonde swordsman's face lit up as he received the mask. "It's perfect!" He put it on and grinned big. The glitter covered plastic accessory was shaped like a jellyfish, it's decorative tentacles enforced to defy gravity with wires, while still being arranged nicely and out of the way left and right on the sides of his face rather than falling in front of his nose and mouth, which would have also been troublesome. "It feels so natural to wear it, I'm buying it. Tonight's party is going to be so much fun!" Gourry held what might appear to be too much joy over such a small achievement, but his general optimism was welcomed by his shopping partner.

Things had been going very well between Amelia and Zelgadis. He was taking a break from everything and though ever so often he would feel a bit of self inflicted guilt over the time he wasn't spending looking for a cure, he told himself that it was okay to take a break and that he should just take that piece of advice Amelia had given him while they were sharing a meal at a restaurant. Sometimes it really was best to live the moment. Zelgadis let go of a considerable amount of his usual gloomy mood over the course of the day. "I think it will be," he agreed.

With their masks chosen and purchased, and no sign of Xellos, Gourry and Zelgadis walked along the street looking for something to do to pass the time. They both knew that the girls couldn't possibly be done with their shopping already. Women tended to take much longer than men to shop, which wasn't all that surprising when one took into consideration that there seemed to be more attire related products out there marketed towards women than what was marketed towards men. They had more to choose from and thus more to examine before making a choice, unless they simply choose the first thing they liked... But Lina wasn't like that; she would want to make the best purchase she could possibly make, even if she got away with charging it to Xellos.

The two passed by in front of a casino and eyed it curiously. "This place looks fun," Gourry pointed out with the innocence one came to expect from him. He proceeded to walk inside, or at least tried to.

"Gourry, no!" Zelgadis desperately pulled Gourry back. "You can't go in there, it's a trap. You'll lose all your money and be forced to make a hasty escape when you become buried in debt."

Gourry blinked, Zelgadis certainly looked serious about this. "It's that bad?"

"Yes," Zelgadis gravely nodded. He was remembering an experience he had regarding a casino and the rumors of a mysterious price. Some said it was a rare and powerful magical artifact and that was enough to drive Zelgadis to gamble away his last coin like a moth to a flame. In the end he lost all his money and fled from the establishment, only to return later that night to sneak into the vaults and steal the mysterious magic item.

The item in question turned out to be an ordinary playing card. The ace of spades was apparently the lucky charm of a legendary gambler that never lost a single game... until he got caught cheating with that same card. It wasn't even a magically powered lucky charm, just a card that used to belong to a casino celebrity that ended up broke after his underhanded tactics were discovered. The venture was a frustrating waste of time and money for Zelgadis and he decided there and then that he did not like casinos.

"Um... okay, thanks for the warning." Gourry replied good naturedly, though he would probably forget about Zelgadis' advice in the not so distant future. "How about we go get flowers instead? We're going to need them anyway, aren't we?"

"Flowers?" Zelgadis questioned, wondering where the seemingly random suggestion came from.

"My grandmother once told me that if I was going to a party with a girl, I should bring her a corset." Gourry recalled, almost accurately, but not quite.

Zelgadis blinked, "A corset?" That seemed like a rather personal thing to gift a girl just because they were going to a party together. Besides, that had nothing to do with flowers.

"Yeah," Gourry nodded, "it's like a flower bracelet," he explained, assuming that Zelgadis' confusion was due to not knowing what the word meant. That happened to Gourry a lot.

"You mean a corsage," Zelgadis corrected. That made a lot more sense than getting a corset and it explained why there would be flowers involved. "I suppose we might as well get some." Though they had no idea what the girls' dresses looked like, they might be able to find some nice, match-anything, corsages. "I'm sure there are some shops selling them near here, since all the fancy party themed stuff is in this area."

The thought of giving the corsage to Amelia made Zelgadis blush. He could almost picture himself stammering as he attempted to put it on her wrist if she asked him to. At least Gourry would be doing the same, Zelgadis assumed with Lina, so he might not be so embarrassed by comparison. Everyone knew that Lina had a shy side to her, but no one was suicidal enough to say it to her face. If she turned as red as her hair, Zelgadis might be encouraged to face his own corsage related trials. Everyone knows there's nothing like someone suffering a misery greater than your own to make you feel better.

The two men were indeed able to find a store that sold corsages. With some advice from the clerk they were able to choose some nice ones that would match regardless of the color of the girls' dresses and that officially finalized their ball preparation journey. They still had some time to spare, and were still pretty sure that the girls weren't done with their shopping yet.

From lack of something better to do, Gourry and Zelgadis decided to idly walk around the resort. The place was huge and they haven't really explored it fully yet. Besides, this way they could get ideas about where they wanted to go later even if they might not have enough time to visit right away. There were certainly a lot of rides, though the lines were huge, so those were events to be tackled with a lot of time on their hands if they decided it was worth it later.

xoxox xox xoxox

Meanwhile, Lina, Amelia and Filia were indeed taking their sweet time trying on dresses for the night's main event. Lina came out of the dressing room in a bright red dress with a slit on the side that made her feel uncomfortable and a cut that made her feel the vexing need to tug the fabric up her chest constantly. She looked at the poster of a red haired woman wearing that same style of dress on the wall. She didn't know what made her think that because she and the model both had red hair she should try on that dress. It simply wasn't her style and it wouldn't be any more her style even if she put on a pair of elbow length purple gloves like the ones the model on the poster was wearing.

Lina shook her head vigorously, being joined in the motion by her judges, Amelia and Filia, who were providing Lina with shopping support instead of making good use of their time by shopping for themselves. Determined to correct her mistake, Lina grabbed the next dress from the bunch she had picked out to try on and entered the changing room again. A few seconds later, a few obscene words were heard directed at a particularly evil zipper. A few minutes later, Lina emerged wearing a new dress. This one was pink with big puffy sleeves that looked more so silly than elegant. "I kind of like the color, but I don't know about the sleeves..."

"It's kind of cute," Amelia commented with the tone one would use when referring to a little girl playing princess.

Filia gave her prospective comments some thought. She didn't want to say the dress looked ridiculous and anger Lina. How could she explain that she was disagreeing with the dress and not with Lina? "Maybe you should try on something else?" Filia gently suggested.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt," Lina returned into the dressing room and the rustling of fabric was heard as she fought with the big puffy gown in the enclosed space that was certainly not large enough to properly try on this sort of space consuming attire. She tossed the mess of pink fabric over the dressing room's door, which thankfully didn't reach all the way to the ceiling or else more than a few unfortunate women might have suffocated while battling their potential dresses. A few more minutes passed and Lina finally emerged wearing a different dress.

The two judges looked at Lina, at each other and finally nodded in agreement. It seemed that the third try was the charm. The dress Lina was wearing was made of a shimmering white fabric that a poet would describe as being crafted from melted pearls and that's exactly what it looked like, if such a thing was possible outside of a metaphor. The white fabric was glossy enough to bring attention to the dress, without the look as a whole being too visually loud given Lina's vibrant hair color. The dress had an elegantly folded line of fabric that went below the shoulders and wrapped itself around the gown above the chest, accentuated with a line of pearls round about. Though Lina would never admit it, and she would kill anyone who pointed it out, it did a good job of making her look... well, not flat.

Lina's dress had another line of pearls around the waist hiding the seams of the secondary layer of fabric that lay on top of the first. That extra layer was see-through and additionally glittery, but not overly so. Lina entertained the notion of wearing high heels, but remembering how difficult it was to walk in them, she decided to discard the possibility. Besides, she would have to wear ridiculously high platform shoes if she was going to be anywhere near as tall as Gourry. Lina's thoughts had unconsciously wandered away from him as she focused on choosing her attire for the night. Then her thoughts had, without her authorization, unconsciously wandered back to Gourry as she considered what he would say when he saw her in that dress. Then she remembered that rotten jellyfish girl, Miss Medusa and her blood instantly boiled with anger.

A sour look invaded Lina's face, which made Amelia and Filia glance at each other in nervous confusion. Wasn't Lina happy to have found a pretty dress to wear that fit her so well?

Just as quickly as the fearsome look appeared on Lina's face, it faded away and her expression turned plotting. Sure, this facial feature was less menacing, but considering the fact that this was Lina Inverse, the Lina Inverse, it was perhaps more dangerous than the first. Lina threw her head back determined. If Gourry wanted to dance with some ditzy jellyfish girl, let him! She would find some other charming, nice, amusing, handsome and all around pleasant guy to spend the ball with... Not that she thought Gourry was any of those things anyway. Oh no he wasn't, certainly not when she was mad at him and especially not when he was too stupid to realize why she was mad at him, or that she was mad at him at all. Lina twirled around showing off for the judges one last time before looking at her reflection in a conveniently placed full length mirror. "This is the one."

Even if they didn't know what came over Lina in the past few seconds, Amelia and Filia remained optimistic. "You look lovely, Miss Lina!" Amelia complimented.

"Yes," Filia agreed with a smile, "this dress definitely fits you beautifully."

With a triumphant smile Lina gave herself one last look in the mirror before declaring, "I'm going to have all the guys staring at me at the ball." She laughed evilly as she imagined herself being the center of attention of many imaginary ultra handsome men, while Gourry sulked jealously in a corner. She retreated into the dressing room and changed back into her vacation clothes, carrying the dress out with care. She treated the chosen dress a lot more nicely then the rejects, after all it didn't really mattered if those got wrinkled. Who would want to wear them anyway, if not even the beautiful Lina inverse could make them look good? "Who's next?"

"Me! Me!" Amelia raised her hand, waiving like a student desperate to be chosen by a favorite teacher, to answer a very easy question worth a good deal of bonus points on the next test. Then she calmed down and looked at Filia with a bit of sudden shyness as it wouldn't be just to be selfish. "That is if Miss Filia doesn't mind."

Filia laughed in good humor, "not at all. Lina and I will help you choose a dress, then you and Lina can help me choose too."

"Right!" Amelia cheered and brought forth her own selection of dresses, taking the first one in the pile to the dressing room.

To be Continued

Disclaimer, I don't own Slayers. Lina's rejected dresses were references to Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Ariel from The Little Mermaid. Lina's final dress was in part inspired by Serena's princess dress from Sailor Moon, but is not exactly like it. The cut on the top is different and it doesn't have the moons or silly shoulder-pad sleeves, but it's a similar color and has pearls. I could have skipped ahead to the ball, but I don't want to rush through the story. Don't worry, as you might have guessed, the ball will bring us to the next important plot point. So yeah, we're getting somewhere!