for Jyn

[andhiswife]

It's meant to be a relatively quick trip to Bardolf's. Greta's looking at cufflinks -- for herself, this time, though no one needs to know that -- and trying to resist the easy temptation of just buying a second pair of the ones she most recently got for Thomas. They'd be sure to match that way. But she doesn't want to diminish what had been a gift by simply copying it; nor is she certain she even wants to match perfectly as much as she wants to compliment.

She's beginning to wonder if they have a women's cufflinks selection, and if she has the nerve to ask a salesperson about it, when she spots a familiar face a little ways off. She hasn't seen Jyn since New Year's, when they were both a mess and coming off the tail end of a party that had ended in crumb-covered ruins. It would be nice, she thinks, to say hello now that she's feeling refreshingly presentable. And now that the nearest party is on the horizon and not likely to end in any sort of disaster. The city can't be trusted, but Magnus at least likes to make sure his guests enjoy themselves.

Abandoning her hunt for accessories, she makes her way over until she's close enough for a polite speaking voice to carry. "Hello, Jyn. You're looking well." 'Clean' might be the more operative term -- she'd looked well at New Year's, too -- but she can hardly greet someone like that.

Comments

[nextchance]

"Something you need the nerve for? Just what are you wearing?" Jyn asks, grinning a little in turn. Fashion may not be a subject on which she has any sort of expertise at all, but the way Greta mentions this, it's hard not to be intrigued by just what something different might entail. For her, just getting dressed up at all would require a specific occasion, nothing that she would even see a reason to try under other circumstances. It's apparent enough, though, that the same isn't true for Greta, and with no real gauge of what might or might not amount to different under circumstances like these, she'll just have to hope that she can get a little more information about it.

"If it's a secret or something, don't worry, I won't tell anyone," she adds. For her part, she's not sure why party attire would be something to keep to oneself, but the vague description makes her think that might be the case, so it's worth offering. Better, too, than focusing on her own cluelessness when it comes to such things. At least she hasn't been turned away yet just for showing up in whatever is comfortable.

[andhiswife]

"Well..." Greta chews her lip for a moment, considering. To her slight shame, it's the fact that Jyn is a fan of the show that stays her for a moment, her own instinctive trust butting up against reminders from Emma to maintain a certain distance if you didn't want your whole life overrun. But Jyn isn't a local, and she doesn't seem like the sort to turn around and put their whole encounter up on Suddengram or something (if she was, she would have after New Year's). And it's not as if showing her a picture of something Greta plans to wear in public qualifies as divulging something too personal.

Honestly. She's the one who flagged down Jyn in the first place.

"All right," she relents, digging out her phone, "but do keep it quiet. I want it to be a surprise. For some people, anyway." She thumbs open her photos and scrolls until she finds some from her last fitting, where the suit was pretty much perfect. Krem had made a few more tiny adjustments, but nothing anyone would notice in a photo. "Here." She turns the phone so Jyn can see, biting back a grin.

[nextchance]

"I won't say a word," Jyn promises as Greta takes her phone out, and she means to stand by that. Given the attention that some people pay to television shows and those who are on them, she would guess that there are more than a few people out there who'd love to know what Greta is wearing to the next party, but she sees no sense in playing into all of that. Besides, different as the circumstances are, she knows a little bit of what it's like to be on the receiving end of all of that, remembering how Poe looked at her when he was still here, a character from stories he was told rather than a real person. It's not a sensation she would wish on anyone else.

Seeing the picture, then, she grins, pleased and a little conspiratorial. Though a woman dressing in a suit like that would hardly have been noteworthy back where she comes from, she knows the same isn't true for everyone here, and anyway, Greta looks damn good like that. Even if fashion has never been a concern of hers, she can still tell that much. "That definitely seems worth branching out for," she says. "And I bet whoever you're surprising will love it, too."

[andhiswife]

"Well, Thomas already knows," she admits with a tip of her head. Not that it wasn't still a surprise for him, it just wasn't one she was trying to save for the party. "But I like the idea of surprising the people who haven't seen it already. The ones who know me well enough to know I'm not normally the suit-wearing sort."

She banishes the photo with a swish of her thumb, then hitches her shoulders in a cheerful shrug as she tucks her phone away. "It'll be fun, I think. Defying everyone's expectations." She layers enough good humor into her tone for Jyn to know she's not taking herself too seriously, but it is still rather exciting.

[nextchance]

"It's a good way of doing it," Jyn says with an approving sort of nod, though she knows it's not as if her input is strictly necessary here. She knows so little about fashion anyway, and perhaps less still specifically about deciding what to wear to get dressed up for a party. But it seems like a fun, safe way of doing something a little different, of surprising people. If there's one thing she does know, it's the enjoyment that can come with a change like that. Though hers were always out of necessity, she still got satisfaction from shedding one identity and taking on another, altering her appearance just slightly each time.

"I think I might defy some expectations just by going to those parties at all. Or maybe just mine."