26 May, 1893 — Gladrags Wizard Wear

He still wasn't sure whether he intended to actually buy anything, but he'd made it to the fitting room all the same. It was Tycho's fault. Ty had been the one to notice the seam coming undone on Ford's sleeve and said let's go shopping — as though it was nothing, because of course to Tycho a spontaneous afternoon shopping trip was nothing. For Ford, this would be the first new suit he'd bought in years — if he ended up buying one. He'd probably find an excuse not to, then repair the hem at home.

(Or maybe Ty would offer to buy it for him, as a gift. Was it selfish for Ford to consider the possibility? Of course he would never ask Ty to buy him something, but it wouldn't have been so out of character for Tycho to offer — and he did rather like the way he looked in this suit. Particularly if it were tailored to fit...)

"I don't know about the color," Ford called as he considered himself in the mirror. He liked the color just fine, but he was cognizant of the need to set up an escape route to excuse his not buying it — and maybe he was fishing for a compliment, a little, too. "What do you think?" he asked, moving out of the fitting room... only to realize Ty wasn't waiting at the door for him as Ford had thought he was.

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Penelope Fawcett

  

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Set by Lady!

Prior to her trip abroad, Penny loathed shopping for new dresses. Maintaining the current fashion was inconvenient at its best moments and a nightmare at its worst, for she was always trying to arrange her appointments around her hectic schedule. But, back then so much of her time was dedicated to spending with him. Her entire world may as well have revolved around him.

Now? Now she was free to linger for as long as she liked without feeling pressured to get home.

She had ordered two new gowns and was looking at fabric for a third when Fortitude Greengrass (Merlin it'd been years since she last thought of him!) magically appeared from the dressing room. "It's a nice color on you, it compliments your skin tone." Penny answered casually despite suspecting it wasn't her opinion he was after. "A shade or two lighter might work better though, what with summer coming and all."

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Talking to someone who wasn't there was embarrassing on its own, but only a little; it was a mistake that could have happened to anyone. Having someone he hadn't been talking to respond was slightly more embarrassing, and he wasn't sure whether it being a familiar face who replied so casually made it better or worse. Probably no one wandering by would have thought they were out shopping together, but he couldn't stop himself from glancing around to check if anyone was in earshot all the same. (Was that even a thing that would have occurred to someone? It wasn't as though shopping together was a thing that courting couples did at a certain stage in their relationship, or anything, but it the idea of it still seemed weirdly intimate for a young woman he only knew casually. Or did it only feel like a semi-intimate activity because he was here with Tycho?)

He laughed and shook his head slightly, trying to shake off the initial awkwardness and just be casual. "Do people really have different clothes set aside for summer?" he joked. "Men, I mean — you don't need to tell me women do. I've got sisters."

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Set by Lady!

"I'd imagine some do." She shrugged. The wealthier sort must, otherwise what else would they do with their money? Surely there were some men that had a different suit for every day of the week. Although, now that she was thinking of it Penny wasn't sure she could name even one man that had such a collection of clothing. Regardless, she easily continued, "why should you suffer in a darker color when it's been so warm lately?"

She looked from him to the fabric swatches and back up, then handed him one that easily complimented the suit color. "If you do go with that one you should ask for a handkerchief made from this. It would match well."

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   Fortitude Greengrass

Of course she was right that some men did — Ty probably did, come to think of it. Or if he didn't have specific clothing set aside for the summer months, it would only have been because he preferred to segment his wardrobe by his moods rather than the seasons. His clothing collection was certainly robust enough to support it. Ford took a second to imagine what it would be like to be rich — not just comfortably well-off, or even situated like Tycho was without a real need to work, but one of those disgustingly wealthy types. If one had a different home for every season — summers in the country and autumn in London and winter on the continent, because why not? — then of course one would have different clothes for each season. They'd just stay with the house when you moved, patiently waiting to be cared for again. What a life that must be.

"I don't know if I could pull off a tan suit," he said, tone stuck somewhere between self-conscious and amused. Any light-colored suit seemed to imply wealth, to him — probably because of the upkeep of keeping a white or tan suit looking clean. Having one that looked nice meant having a small army of servants who were ready to launder one's clothes at home, or spending a lot more time and energy maintaining one's clothes than the average person did. (Maybe he should get a tan suit, then — Mama was always in favor of performative signals of wealth, to help the girls' chances, and Ford wasn't actually opposed to spending his own time keeping his clothes looking nice — he'd already been putting enough effort into just keeping his old suits together, and keeping a new one clean couldn't be any harder than that).

She handed him a bolt of fabric, and he considered it with a raised brow. If the idea of being mistaken for shopping together made him nervous, taking any actual fashion advice from Miss Fawcett should have been entirely off the table, but the suggestion had him curious. "How do you choose a complementary color for a handkerchief? I mean — are they even supposed to go with the suit? I thought they were all sort of interchangeable." Well, his all were, anyway, because they were all plain white. He'd never had a colorful, embroidered, or otherwise decorated handkerchief, and he probably wasn't about to start carrying them now, but the idea did intrigue him.

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Set by Lady!

"I think most men - if not all - can pull of a tan suit." Tan suits were certainly nicer than boring brown or black anyway. Suddenly, Penny was struck by how miserably boring men's suits were compared to women's dresses. Women could have dresses in a beautiful array of colors and men were rarely dressed in colors outside of neutrals. Why couldn't a man sport a pink suit? It would certainly attract more attention than their typical clothes anyway.

"The colors look nice together, that's really all there is to it. White is typical - predictable. Why not stand out a bit?"

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"Because then you stand out," Ford returned without thinking. His tone was still light, joking, but he immediately wondered if the response was too earnest. Drawing too much attention to oneself was obviously a negative for someone who didn't want to flirt with women because they could absolutely never afford to marry one, but it wasn't as though that was public knowledge. He hadn't even told Tycho. There were other reasons that one might not want to stand out, though; hopefully Miss Fawcett didn't know him well enough to suspect that any of them rang false.

"I might not even get this one," he said, mostly to change the subject. "But I appreciate the handkerchief advice."

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Set by Lady!

She quirked her head as she absorbed his statement. Penny had always stood out to some degree or another - whether it was her supposed 'beauty' or her odd choice of profession, she was notable to some degree. It never bothered her before now and she certainly hadn't ever cared. It was just ... odd to think that someone would cease following their interests in favor of blending into the crowd. "There's happiness to be found in standing out." Penny replied simply after a brief pause.

"Why not try on a different one? You can compare how you feel in both and form a stronger opinion one way or the other."

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She oughtn't to have cared one way or another which suit he chose, or which handkerchief, but the pause before she replied implied that she did. Or maybe cared was too strong a word, but she was being thoughtful about this interaction, however haphazardly it had started. Ford couldn't help but feel as though he was somehow being disingenuous with her by continuing it, though he told himself that was silly.

"Yeah, alright," he agreed after a moment. "I'll check if they've got one in the same cut. Unless you've some opinions about that, too?" he teased. Mostly teased — just like the comment about the color earlier that he'd thought he'd been directing at Tycho had been mostly preparing an escape route for when he didn't go through with buying the suit. Before, there had been a small, almost unacknowledged part of him that had been hoping for a compliment in return — in this case, that part of him was curious exactly how deep her opinions on his outfit went.

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Set by Lady!

Briefly, Penny wondered if perhaps she was wrong to have answered his initial questions. He was smiling and joking (or so she thought) but what if her opinions had made him uncomfortable somehow? Noting subtleties had never been her strongsuit. What if his teasing was just polite deflection to cover annoyance?

"You ought to stay in styles you're comfortable in." The confidence that allowed her to voice her opinions about colors, handkerchiefs and the weather had seemingly vanished, leaving her feeling deeply off balance and flustered. "I'll just be over there when you've changed."

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She was going to wait for him to change. Her cheeks had gone a little red at his question about the fit of his suit, but it wasn't presumptuous enough to have scared her off entirely, and now he was going to pick out a suit she'd suggested and she was going to wait for him to change. So — were they shopping together, now? The answer seemed obvious, but Ford didn't know how exactly this had happened, or how he was meant to feel about it.

"Alright," he agreed, biting the tiniest bit of his lower lip, because that was easier than trying to figure out what the appropriate facial expression was for this moment. "See you in a second, then."

Where was Tycho?

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Set by Lady!

The conversation had become incredibly awkward. So much so that Penny considered leaving while he changed. Aside from the gown yet to be ordered, her purchases were already taken care of, so she needn't worry about offending the owner. It was just Mr. Greengrass she had left to offend, but did that matter much? Their conversations had always flowed well in the past and they were decently friendly in school. However, that was the extent of their relationship, so why did it matter what he thought of her?

Penny couldn't name it, nor could she leave. Instead, she continued browsing while she (foolishly) awaited his return.

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It took no time at all to find the right suit, which meant that he was back in the changing room before he'd really had time to finish processing this entire brief but strange interaction. He was alone with his thoughts as he changed. Was it significant that she'd offered to wait? They had always been reasonably friendly in the past, both at school and at society events when they happened to cross paths, but they hadn't properly spoken in a good long while. It was probably best not to read into it... but on the other hand, the situation was so odd and unexpected that he almost couldn't help reading into it. No one had ever hung around at a tailor and waited to see how a suit looked on him before. Not even Tycho had done that, apparently — who even knew where Ty had wandered off to, at this point. So...

He half expected her to be gone when he came back out, and was pleased in spite of himself when he spotted her just where she said she'd be. "Alright, then. Presenting myself for the judge's critique," he teased, and tugged the suit jacket straight again. He had an urge to fix his hair, but suppressed it since he'd already done that in the mirror of the changing room (which — it only just now occurred to him — there had been no reason to adjust his hair in the changing room in the first place; she was only supposed to be looking at the suit).

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Set by Lady!

She had resumed browsing for her third dress while waiting, and was now carrying two bolts of fabric to ponder over when Mr. Greengrass returned. The blush she spent the majority of the time willing away quickly took over her features once more as she examined his new suit. In her opinion, which she knew wasn't worth much to him, the tan looked remarkably nicer than the brown. His eyes seemed brighter, his facial features softer. Mr. Greengrass would be far more successful in finding a wife in the this one.

"Your opinion matters most. Do you like it?" Penny asked rather than voicing her own thoughts.

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   Fortitude Greengrass

She'd been so forthcoming with her opinions before that Ford had been expecting the same this time, and was surprised that she turned it around to him instead. If it was just his opinion that mattered, why wait around to see how it looked? He bit back a smile and looked around for the nearest mirror, as though he'd already forgotten how he looked in it.

"I like it," he said, almost shyly. "It was a good recommendation. Are you going to help me pick a handkerchief for this one, too?" he asked. He hoped so — this was fun, putting together a whole look. He understood why Ty liked buying new clothes so much; there was something almost aspirational about putting on a new outfit, as if he were trying on a whole new version of himself instead of just a suit. It was a shame he probably wouldn't end up buying it.

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Set by Lady!

"The lighter shades suit you." She confirmed with a small smile. Not only did the tan make him appear softer, but he also looked less burdened, like nothing at all could go wrong in a tan suit. "You ought to try something blue next time." She wasn't about to encourage him to try on a suit that was entirely outside of what he'd been looking for today, but blue would certainly look nice on him in the future.

As for the handkerchief, Penny abandoned her bolts and turned back to the display behind her. After rummaging for a few minutes she came back with not one, but three handkerchief options. "Cream would look nicer than stark white if you're wanting to stick to tradition. These two are a bit more out there, but I think the light green would be the nicest with that tan." She explained, offering him the different options.

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