Namco owns all rights to Tales of Symphonia. I don't claim to own them. This work is not intended for any form of profit and has been written without permission.
This is Colette's installment of the series, being part two of eight. And I'm not really sure why, but I found this story incredibly difficult to write. Seriously, it took me several months to work this one out, and I'm still not real satisfied with it. I guess it's just one of those things.
As always, happy reading!
Colette's Tale: A New Experience
With all of the time that she was afforded, Colette Brunel wasn't quite sure what she was going to do all by herself. Flanoir was beautiful, for sure, but even that wouldn't fill four hours. Presently, the Chosen was wandering somewhat aimlessly down one of the city streets, pausing every now and then to examine the occasional display window, regardless of what may have been in it. It wasn't all that stimulating, however, and for the sake of Martel was it cold. The steady snowfall made it difficult to see too far down the street; she had to squint to compensate for the sheer brightness of it. Colette could already feel the tips of her ears beginning to burn, paradoxically, from the chill. She was beginning to ponder returning to the inn and enjoying a nice cup of tea in front of a roaring fire when she tripped over something and fell face-first onto the snow-blanketed street.
"Colette, are you all right?" The girl looked up, still lying in the snow. At first she saw nothing but the sky, colored a dreary shade of misty white that matched the precipitation. Then, that someone entered her field of vision and turned out to be none other than…
"Presea?" Colette said dazedly, a little disoriented from her tumble. "I'm sorry. I didn't see you."
Presea laughed, which Colette noticed was something that, just a little while ago, she never would have done. But now that the worlds were reunited and peace had settled in, the once-taciturn girl had opened up brilliantly, turning from lonely and distant to friendly and energetic. It was a welcome change, though one that still took some getting used to. "Don't worry about it. You should be careful not to trip so often."
The Chosen rose from the ground with the help of her angel wings and dusted herself off, knocking loose clumps of snow back down onto the road. Truthfully the fall hadn't done much to improve her internal temperature; that tea by the fire wasn't sounding too bad right about now. She noticed one thing that hadn't changed about Presea was her unwavering stoicism; the girl seemed completely unfazed by the weather, the snow falling gently and melting into her navy blue dress, leaving no trace behind. Suddenly an idea sprang to Colette's mind, and she instantly forgot all about the cold.
"Say, Presea…how about we do some shopping?"
Presea seemed to be taken slightly off-guard at this sudden, almost absurd request. But she eventually broke into a smile. "Sure Colette, that'd be great."
"Great!" Colette echoed, grabbing Presea's hand suddenly and yanking her down the street behind her. "Let's get started!"
Had any other member of their party been presented with this sort of situation, they would have immediately seen the inherent awkwardness of it. However, Colette was seemingly oblivious to the obvious separation in interest as she led Presea down the street, weaving her way a little haphazardly through the local pedestrians. Presea didn't say anything during this tenure; rather, she let Colette's enthusiasm run its course. She could only wonder (with an unfortunate tinge of apprehension) what exactly the Chosen was up to as she stopped in front of the shop she'd apparently been looking for.
"Here we are," the energetic Chosen pointed out. She indicated a rather large, over-decorated shop that seemed to dwarf all the other ones that happened to be within a block of it.
Presea followed Colette's gesture. "A clothing store?" she said a little warily. She turned her gaze to her companion. "But Colette, your clothes are just fine."
At this comment, Colette laughed as though Presea had just claimed to have seen Mithos handing out sweets to young children. "Not for me, silly," she said giddily.
"What?" Presea replied, her tone sepulchral. Suddenly she realized what Colette was talking about, but before she could even open her mouth to protest, the Chosen had grabbed the girl by the wrist and had yanked her through the door, into the shop.
As it turned out, the interior was just as gaudy as the exterior. The place was brightly illuminated by deep crimson-hued lanterns that complimented the shockingly pink walls. Ironically, the décor matched Presea's hair color almost flawlessly.
Colette turned to face Presea, who was now looking woefully out-of-place. "So?" she said expectantly.
It took Presea a moment to register all that had happened. Truthfully, she was now beginning to wonder if she'd gotten more than she'd bargained for. However, her newfound humanity prevented her from being so blunt, so instead, she pointed out, "I don't think I need any new clothes."
For the first time in a long while, Colette looked troubled. "Come on now, this'll be fun! You don't actually have to buy anything."
"I don't?" replied Presea. She'd seen plenty of strange things along their journey, but this seemed borderline absurd. "But then what's the point of coming here if we aren't going to…"
"Ah, Presea," said Colette, nodding her head knowingly. "That's what makes it fun! You look around at different things and see if they look good on you!"
"I get to try them on?"
"Of course."
"In front of everyone?"
This was met by a short pause. "…You've still got a lot to learn."
The fitting rooms weren't very spacious by any stretch or sense of the word, but Colette figured they'd have to do. She pushed one of the wooden stall doors open and almost forced her companion inside.
"What am I supposed to do in here?" Presea inquired.
The silence was maddening. Colette couldn't even imagine anyone being so…uneducated in something such as this, but she kept that to herself. "You just try on the clothes," she replied matter-of-factly. "Have some fun with it. Mix and match."
Presea began to protest only to find that the door had shut with a rather loud creak. She figured it would seem a little ridiculous to keep arguing at this point, if only to preserve her own sanity.
Feeling ludicrously self-conscious, she began disrobing, her only watcher being a full-length mirror in the center of one of the walls. It was probably a little irrational to be embarrassed, she thought to herself. After all, the mirror didn't seem to mind.
Still a little unsure of what she was doing, she began sifting through the pile of clothes in front of her. Colette seemed to have picked them all out at random without much regard to size or style. For some reason, it didn't really surprise her.
Suddenly, her face lit up as she found a dress that she liked. She quickly put it on, careful not to mess up her hair too much.
"Okay Colette, I'm ready!"
"Great!" Colette exclaimed from outside. She'd been beginning to wonder for a little bit about how Presea had been doing. After all, difficulties had been known to arise from time to time, especially with zippers and—
The door creaked open, and Presea stepped out cautiously, as though she were expecting a Judgment Ray to come flying at her from some odd angle. "Well, what do you think?"
Colette stared. Whatever she had been expecting, it definitely was not this. "Um…Presea? You're wearing exactly what you were before."
Presea, in turn, seemed confused. "What do you mean? My dress before was blue. This one is purple."
For the life of her, Colette could not tell the difference, though she supposed no one would know better than Presea herself. Still, the minimal change bugged her, and she pressed the girl further. "Come on Presea, that's not the point. Try something new! Be daring!"
"Daring…?" Presea repeated slowly. "But…I'm just putting on clothes."
This was too much. Colette grabbed Presea's arm and nearly dragged her back into the dressing room. "Don't worry, I'll help you out!"
"Wait, are you sure it's okay for you to be in here at the same time as—"
"It'll be okay, I've done this plenty of times before."
Presea was just about to ask Colette to recount exactly when she had "done this before", but the other girl was busy rummaging through the pile that Presea had just gone through minutes before.
"Here!" Colette said, holding up a frilly pink skirt and some white boots. "How about these?"
Presea was dumbstruck. The clothes looked fit for a ballerina maybe, but not her. But before she could protest, they were in her arms.
"Try them on," the Chosen insisted.
If Presea had felt self-conscious before about changing in front of a mirror, then having Colette stand there wasn't doing too much good. Turning around, she stripped down to her undergarments and tried to dress as fast as she could. Unfortunately, the dress ended up on upside-down. The boots were probably best left unmentioned.
Colette sighed. "No, silly, like this." She reached around and quickly fixed Presea's dress. After the boots had been put on properly as well, Colette stood back and admired her work. "You look cute!" she squealed.
Presea felt more awkward than anything. The pink was distracting…it looked too much like her hair. The boots were also uncomfortable. But then again, Colette had actually said she looked cute. So she must have taken a step in the right direction…right?
"Really?" she said incredulously.
Colette beamed, and it seemed as though the sun was positively radiating from her face. "Of course!" She was so happy for Presea…after all; this was an avenue of life that she'd been missing all this time!
"Well," Presea went on hesitantly, "I don't really like this dress. It looks too much like my hair and the skirt makes me feel…naked."
Colette nodded. "No worries, you just need to make a few adjustments. Here…" She began looking through the pile again, until at last she came up one more time with a similar-looking purple sleeveless top.
Presea shook her head. "The color is better, but it's still a skirt."
Colette thought about this for a second. "I know! Here you go." She handed Presea a pair of black skintight leggings. "That should do it."
A couple of size changes and a new pair of blue boots later, and Presea stood before Colette clad in her completely revamped outfit. The skirt was frilly but not terribly so, extending down to about mid-thigh, where the leggings continued to her knees.
Colette could barely contain her excitement. "You look…so…gorgeous!" she exclaimed. "I'm jealous."
Presea blushed. "You really think I look that good?"
"Of course I do. Come on, I can't wait to show everybody!"
Colette turned to leave, but Presea lingered questioningly. "Wait…what about the changing room?"
The Chosen looked back for a second and saw the remnants of what used to be the changing room. Clothes were stacked five feet high, with random boxes of all shapes and sizes strewn about in no particular order. It looked more like a warehouse than anything.
"Um…someone will clean that up, I'm sure."
Presea smiled faintly. "If you say so."
After an altercation with the cashier in which Colette had forgotten to pay and had led Presea straight out of the store, the two found themselves once again on the streets of the Snowy City. Colette took a moment to pause and admire her handiwork.
"You know, Presea, you really look great. I'm glad we took the time to do this."
Presea, in turn, smiled. "Thank you Colette. I'm…really glad we did this too."
Colette's face turned from admiring to mischievous upon hearing this. "Well, in that case, there's one more thing I think we should take care of." Her mind was already racing with ideas for their next destination.
The smaller girl cocked her head to the side in question. "Oh? What's that?"
"I think..." Colette began, "…that this would be the perfect time for a new haircut!"
"What!?" Presea exclaimed, turning around in an attempt to escape her companion. But it was too late. The Chosen had already latched onto her arm and was dragging her in the opposite direction.
"Oh Colette, you can't possibly be serious…"
And it was at that moment that Colette knew that this was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Again, I apologize…I really didn't like this one. Oh well. Maybe next time…