Post by Holly Mason on Feb 16, 2014 3:52:48 GMT -5
Valentine's day always seem like such a waste of a holiday to Holly. She supposed there were worse things to celebrate than love, but the holiday never felt like a celebration of love to her. The entire thing just felt tacky and overly commercialized, even more so than like Christmas. It didn't seem to serve any purpose at all either; if the commercial aspect went away would anyone even care? Would it still be celebrated? Ironically enough, the holiday just had no heart. Despite that, she didn't mind it too much. Holly didn't care for romantic relationships, but she would not pass up any excuse to go to some kind of party. It's not like the couples would bother her, she was very secure in her apathy. So, when she heard there was going to be a festival at the shrine she knew she had to go. She planned to invite a small group of friends that she was pretty sure wouldn't have dates themselves for company. Everything was going smoothly until the night of the festival.
Holly spent a little bit of time preparing. About the only thing she needed to do was make sure she had something nice to wear and to make sure her friends did too so they wouldn't embarrass her. They couldn't look quite as good as she did, but that was difficult to pull off anyway. Most of them opted to go with eastern-style clothing, save one who wanted to wear traditional Mexican clothing. Holly herself preferred western clothing, mostly what you could find in the United States, United Kingdom or France. For this event, she went with a long red and white dress. The top part was red, with a fairly high cut considering the style. She didn't really like showing cleavage. The dress had sleeves, though they were off the shoulders and on the upper parts of her arms. The very top of the top had a folded wave pattern that continued into the sleeves. The rest of it was covered in small red gems. Not fake-looking shiny things like sequins either, it had actual gems embedded in it. The bottom was made of several layers of thin white silk. The red part ended around her waist and continued a little further down around her front and back before poofing out into the white bottom. Her hips were a little narrow, so she liked dressed that were a little poofy around them. On her hands were white opera gloves with a bit of red on the top above her elbows. Her shoes were simple, strapless heels, though the heels were still very small. Anything more would just be excessive. They had a single red gem in the front, but otherwise were fairly plain. Most of the shoes were covered by the dress anyway, so it wasn't that important. Her hair was tied back into a tight bun with a braid surrounding it. There were a few small, red gems holding her hair in place as well. To prevent her from completely freezing in this, she wore white tights and had a white shawl with red tassels draped over her shoulders. To finish off the look, she put some ruby stud earrings on and a silver necklace with a small ruby in the center. She was quite happy with her outfit, and her friends were acceptable. She called them all a few hours before the festival was supposed to start and they all confirmed they were ready to go, so it looked like everything was going smoothly.
It was too good to be true. They agreed to meet at the bottom of the stairs to the shrine. As usual, Holly showed up about five minutes late. Three of her four friends were there, but one was missing. Irritated, she simply began chatting with her friends while she waited. Ten minutes passed and there was still no sign of her last friend. The conversation was dying down a bit and everyone stood around awkwardly. Holly was willing to give her another five minutes before calling her and yelling at her. Those five minutes passed, painfully slow she might add, and there was still no sign of her friend. Angrily, she yanked her phone out of her purse and called her. The first time she didn't answer, but Holly didn't give up. After three more tries her friend finally picked up. Apparently something came up at the last minute and she didn't want to talk about it. All Holly could think was that she should have at least had the decency to tell them so they wouldn't have wasted 20 minutes standing around like this. Her friend was apologetic enough that she decided not to push it, but it still put her in a bit of a sour mood for what was supposed to be a fun night. Sighing, she put her phone back into her purse and informed the rest of her friends of the situation.
Good, everything should be better now right? Not quite, the universe had rather creative ways to ruin peoples' nights. The stairs to the shrine were rather steep and uneven, and someone was wearing a kimono for the first time and wasn't used to moving in the outfit or the shoes. She miss-stepped on one of the steps and ended up tumbling down a few steps. She managed to catch herself before she could hurt herself too badly, but she twisted her ankle and was having difficulty getting up. There were a couple of bruises on her legs that probably weren't helping either. Rather than slow them down for the rest of the night, she opted to go home, but she obviously couldn't walk down the stairs herself like that. Holly sighed, and with the help of her remaining two friends, helped her injured friend down the stairs and back to her car. Fortunately, she didn't injure the foot she needed to drive, so she would be able to make it home safely. Unfortunately for the rest of the group, they lost another ten minutes and Holly was starting to get cranky.
One very slow trip up the stairs later, they finally made it to the festival. A whole 40 minutes after it started. Everyone insisted on taking the stairs excruciatingly slowly after that incident. It was like she was walking with a bunch of toddlers. Holly was still losing her patience, and it was only a matter of time before she snapped. The festival itself was not worth the suffering she went through so far. Everything was just...okay she supposed. She played a few games, met a few new people...but while she was busy trying to enjoy the festival she was not watching one of her friends. And it happened to be the friend that had a birthday a few days ago thus letting her legally purchase alcohol. Holly was fine with that, as long as it was done in moderation. This friend had no sense of moderation. She wasn't sure how many drinks her friend had, but while Holly was playing one of the many games at the festival this friend suddenly puked all over the stand. The vomit nearly got all over her dress too. The fact that she avoided it was a testament to how much her physical abilities had improved since awakening to her persona. Her remaining friend however, was not so lucky. The bottom of her outfit was completely covered in it and all she could do was stare at it horrified. It wouldn't do any good to take her anger out on her drunk friend, so she used the fact that she had long arms to physically lift her up by the collar of her kimono and dragged her to the nearest bathroom. It probably wasn't healthy, but it at least meant she wouldn't be embarrassing herself, or embarrassing Holly further. She told her remaining friend to follow and to watch her while Holly herself got some food.
Holly opted to go to the place with the shortest line, which looked like a takoyaki stand. That should suffice for now. Hopefully that would help her friend process the alcohol a bit and hold her and her remaining friend over until they could get something better. If the two of them decided to stay at all that is. She found it likely that her remaining friend would take her drunk friend home and then go home herself and cry herself to sleep after getting her nice outfit ruined in an embarrassing fashion. That friend was already rather shy and easily embarrassed after all. Unfortunately for all of them, even the line to this stand was rather long. It took all of her self control to not just push everyone out of the way right now, but ultimately she didn't want to be kicked out of the festival yet. Yet. If this kept up she might not care at all.
Thus, there she was, somewhat disheveled looking despite having perfect hair and clothes still. Her expression looked like it would kill the next thing that looked at her funny.
Holly spent a little bit of time preparing. About the only thing she needed to do was make sure she had something nice to wear and to make sure her friends did too so they wouldn't embarrass her. They couldn't look quite as good as she did, but that was difficult to pull off anyway. Most of them opted to go with eastern-style clothing, save one who wanted to wear traditional Mexican clothing. Holly herself preferred western clothing, mostly what you could find in the United States, United Kingdom or France. For this event, she went with a long red and white dress. The top part was red, with a fairly high cut considering the style. She didn't really like showing cleavage. The dress had sleeves, though they were off the shoulders and on the upper parts of her arms. The very top of the top had a folded wave pattern that continued into the sleeves. The rest of it was covered in small red gems. Not fake-looking shiny things like sequins either, it had actual gems embedded in it. The bottom was made of several layers of thin white silk. The red part ended around her waist and continued a little further down around her front and back before poofing out into the white bottom. Her hips were a little narrow, so she liked dressed that were a little poofy around them. On her hands were white opera gloves with a bit of red on the top above her elbows. Her shoes were simple, strapless heels, though the heels were still very small. Anything more would just be excessive. They had a single red gem in the front, but otherwise were fairly plain. Most of the shoes were covered by the dress anyway, so it wasn't that important. Her hair was tied back into a tight bun with a braid surrounding it. There were a few small, red gems holding her hair in place as well. To prevent her from completely freezing in this, she wore white tights and had a white shawl with red tassels draped over her shoulders. To finish off the look, she put some ruby stud earrings on and a silver necklace with a small ruby in the center. She was quite happy with her outfit, and her friends were acceptable. She called them all a few hours before the festival was supposed to start and they all confirmed they were ready to go, so it looked like everything was going smoothly.
It was too good to be true. They agreed to meet at the bottom of the stairs to the shrine. As usual, Holly showed up about five minutes late. Three of her four friends were there, but one was missing. Irritated, she simply began chatting with her friends while she waited. Ten minutes passed and there was still no sign of her last friend. The conversation was dying down a bit and everyone stood around awkwardly. Holly was willing to give her another five minutes before calling her and yelling at her. Those five minutes passed, painfully slow she might add, and there was still no sign of her friend. Angrily, she yanked her phone out of her purse and called her. The first time she didn't answer, but Holly didn't give up. After three more tries her friend finally picked up. Apparently something came up at the last minute and she didn't want to talk about it. All Holly could think was that she should have at least had the decency to tell them so they wouldn't have wasted 20 minutes standing around like this. Her friend was apologetic enough that she decided not to push it, but it still put her in a bit of a sour mood for what was supposed to be a fun night. Sighing, she put her phone back into her purse and informed the rest of her friends of the situation.
Good, everything should be better now right? Not quite, the universe had rather creative ways to ruin peoples' nights. The stairs to the shrine were rather steep and uneven, and someone was wearing a kimono for the first time and wasn't used to moving in the outfit or the shoes. She miss-stepped on one of the steps and ended up tumbling down a few steps. She managed to catch herself before she could hurt herself too badly, but she twisted her ankle and was having difficulty getting up. There were a couple of bruises on her legs that probably weren't helping either. Rather than slow them down for the rest of the night, she opted to go home, but she obviously couldn't walk down the stairs herself like that. Holly sighed, and with the help of her remaining two friends, helped her injured friend down the stairs and back to her car. Fortunately, she didn't injure the foot she needed to drive, so she would be able to make it home safely. Unfortunately for the rest of the group, they lost another ten minutes and Holly was starting to get cranky.
One very slow trip up the stairs later, they finally made it to the festival. A whole 40 minutes after it started. Everyone insisted on taking the stairs excruciatingly slowly after that incident. It was like she was walking with a bunch of toddlers. Holly was still losing her patience, and it was only a matter of time before she snapped. The festival itself was not worth the suffering she went through so far. Everything was just...okay she supposed. She played a few games, met a few new people...but while she was busy trying to enjoy the festival she was not watching one of her friends. And it happened to be the friend that had a birthday a few days ago thus letting her legally purchase alcohol. Holly was fine with that, as long as it was done in moderation. This friend had no sense of moderation. She wasn't sure how many drinks her friend had, but while Holly was playing one of the many games at the festival this friend suddenly puked all over the stand. The vomit nearly got all over her dress too. The fact that she avoided it was a testament to how much her physical abilities had improved since awakening to her persona. Her remaining friend however, was not so lucky. The bottom of her outfit was completely covered in it and all she could do was stare at it horrified. It wouldn't do any good to take her anger out on her drunk friend, so she used the fact that she had long arms to physically lift her up by the collar of her kimono and dragged her to the nearest bathroom. It probably wasn't healthy, but it at least meant she wouldn't be embarrassing herself, or embarrassing Holly further. She told her remaining friend to follow and to watch her while Holly herself got some food.
Holly opted to go to the place with the shortest line, which looked like a takoyaki stand. That should suffice for now. Hopefully that would help her friend process the alcohol a bit and hold her and her remaining friend over until they could get something better. If the two of them decided to stay at all that is. She found it likely that her remaining friend would take her drunk friend home and then go home herself and cry herself to sleep after getting her nice outfit ruined in an embarrassing fashion. That friend was already rather shy and easily embarrassed after all. Unfortunately for all of them, even the line to this stand was rather long. It took all of her self control to not just push everyone out of the way right now, but ultimately she didn't want to be kicked out of the festival yet. Yet. If this kept up she might not care at all.
Thus, there she was, somewhat disheveled looking despite having perfect hair and clothes still. Her expression looked like it would kill the next thing that looked at her funny.
