The Domino City Mall
Rakuten Department Store
Young Women's Section
March 25th, 2009
8:34 P.M.
March 25th ended the when Aglaia's life began.
It was two nights before the school dance and Teá had moved mountains to assure that Aglaia looked good in the dress she and Serenity had picked out for her. The sandals were another battle entirely.
Even now, as Aglaia stood waiting for her mother to check out her clearance goods, she mulled over every fit and flutter of the dark red, square shouldered, for-sale smock. The store was nearly empty then and the mall would be closed soon.
A loud noise then came from in the back changing room.
"What do you mean it ripped?! Wait, you can't go! I've gotta find a dress! YOU TRAITORS!"
The woman scanning Kalliope's clothing asked the girl in the cash register over to silence the trouble in the back.
Soon, though, two girls Aglaia recognized from school came through the aisles and left the store with one muttering impatiently.
Out of curiosity and boredom, Aglaia drifted to the dressing rooms and saw Reina pulling her silky hair out as several store clerks scurried around helplessly.
"You mean to tell me that the Liz Lisa dress that I paid so much for in advance just ripped?! Just ripped?!!!"
The employees surrounding offered anything they could, but nothing sufficed.
"The only things left are the rejects!! What can I do!? Everything else is hideous or too expensive, I only have so much money!"
Reina began mumbling angrily to herself and the employees looked to one another, collectively sighed, and began putting away the clothes all strewn about.
Aglaia had a striking thought as her eyes flashed to the "reject rack" behind the repairs counter in the back of the dressing room.
She approached the off-white peasant dress that had caught her eye. It was torn on the side and reeked of last season, but. . . it could work. Scanning the desk for anything needle or thread-like, she invaded the sewing kit and sat down on a stool with the dress.
"Um, excuse me," one sales clerk tried to pardon. "Miss, the store is about to close."
"I-- I know. . . just give me a minute."
Reina spotted Aglaia and shouted, "What the hell are you doing here?!", obviously not pleased that anyone saw her in this state.
Discontented with the answer of silence, she stomped her way to Aglaia.
"What are you doing?" It took Reina a moment to realize. "Why are you? . . ."
"Helping. . ." Aglaia muttered, not looking up. Her needle moved like an eel in the ocean.
"Get-- get out of here! Nobody needs your help!" Yet, Reina took a moment to analyze the dress. "That thing is ugly, anyway!"
All of the women watched as Aglaia finished hemming the dress and went to the counter. She began searching the drawers.
"Miss, you really need to--" an employee began, but was silenced by Reina, very intent upon Aglaia.
The several women in the room dared not interrupt.
Finding a black lace that suited, Aglaia took to fastening the thin mesh to the top of the dress. In an excruciating twenty minutes, the entire neckline was properly attached.
Kalliope had finished her shopping and came to see her daughter confusedly.
Aglaia then took the affixing a thicker black torchon lace to the end of the dress.
It might have been an hour or so, and the employees contended to leave, but Kalliope sat with her back to the wall and Reina was still squatted over Aglaia.
"Could you," Aglaia finally spoke, "go get me a long black ribbon?"
The rest of that night, the boss stayed and watched as the girls together assembled a dress of black lace and ribbon that, for starters, certainly did not belong in the reject rack.
Reina was less expressively thankful then she felt, but Aglaia was paying too much attention to the pulsing callouses on her fingers to care.
Mrs. Kaeda, the store manager who had witnessed the affair, checked out Reina (long after the store's hours) and stopped Aglaia with her mother before they could leave.
"I saw what you were doing there. I've never seen anything like it."
A moment of uncomprehendingly silence passed.
"You know the mall has a charisma agency."
Aglaia blankly nodded.
"They could use a girl like you."
Again, Aglaia blankly nodded.
Her face reddened as realization hit her.
And so it began.
Back At The Atsuko Townhouse
The First Door on the Right
Aphrodite had become like a sort of diary to Aglaia.
"I'm going to be charisma agent," Aglaia announced gleefully as she lie on her bed.
"'Charisma agent'? That sounds to me like a prostitute," the ghostly visage of Aphrodite decided.
"No," Aglaia sat up. "It's kind of like. . ." She took a moment to think. "Like a fashion expert." She blushed as she thought about it. "A consultant. People will ask me what to wear."
"You certainly think often of clothing," Aphrodite sneered as she looked at the familiar posters on the walls. "But what man cares more for clothing than what is beneath?"
Aglaia blushed again and reprimanded her second soul.
"It is the truth. And I think that the time has come for me to make my debut!"
But the mortal scowled.
"The world has waited long enough," the otherworldly counterpart decided.
"What do you have in mind?" Reluctance ran off her voice like sweat.
After a battle to rival Marathon, Aphrodite convinced Aglaia that her plan for full proof.
And for that matter, totally necessary.
"Hey, Mom?" The florid Aglaia asked as she peeked around her parents' bedroom door.
"Yes?" Kalliope lowered her copy of Entertainment Weekly.
"I was wondering. . . could I try on some makeup?"
Kalliope's face lit up like a teen girl with Jonas Brothers tickets.
"Ooh, I thought you'd never ask!!"
Domino City Monorail
Train Car 16-12
(en route to the Kaido-Ji district)
March 25th, 2009
6:25 P.M.
The sun was setting on the school day after.
Aglaia's face felt painted up yet totally nude every moment at school.
The boys gave her all types of grief (Duke's form, notably, was a well placed flirtation), but Teá insisted that Aglaia(whose real blush was inexplicably deepened by false blush) looked adorable.
Riding the metro on her way to Teá's suburban home(for a much needed sleep over), Aglaia had time to think over the unconventional day's most startling anomaly-- and that was Seto Kaiba.
At school for once, he had looked directly at her.
This might not seem so strange for some people, but it was Seto Kaiba.
The Seto Kaiba who may or may not have meant to break her brother's kneecaps, and the Seto Kaiba whose nose she wiped and whose sleeping face mimicked a statue.
Sometimes, as Aglaia sat with her friends, she had the insoluble feeling that he was looking at her (as his bore a presence that seemed to gravitate the room), but when she subtly turned to "get out her book", she found him innocently reading his. (As innocently as a board room shark can, mind you.)
But that day, she turned and saw him looking straight at her from the stairwell, unabashedly, like a calculator evaluating some complex equation.
For a moment, they shared eye content.
Funny; Aglaia almost thought he looked surprised.
But as by-passer interrupted her view of him, he seemed to disappear in a school of unaware student-fishes.
"Seems like an admirer," Aphrodite speculated, but Aglaia shamelessly ignored her. (For she wouldn't be taking the reality of spirit whose faith laid in Olympus.)
Back on the metro from her mind, Aglaia realized that she was staring at a pair of purple boots, those of the passenger across from her.
Big blonde hair, glossed lips, waist of a model, bust of a queen, and a pair of purple boots.
Aglaia soon found herself staring directly at the unknowing Mai Valentine.
"What are you looking at, kid?" she spoke in a husky voice, running with womanhood.
"No-- nothing . . ." Aglaia turned her face to the ground.
A lot of things began that day.
Okay, so here's the deal. Next chapter is the climax! 3 (at least, for this arc-let) What you've all been waiting for. It will probably bubble over into two-part installment, and after that bout of plot, I'm finally ready and raring to go! I'm so excited. X)
For those who've been loyal, here's the situation: this, as I've previously stated, is the first arc-let. I'll call it that so as not to make it seem longer than it is-- I mean was.
This story in its entirety will probably encompass four or five arc-lets, the following(with ambiguous names as not to spoil anything):
The Spell Bound Arc(this one), The Rocket Woman Arc(fashion-wrought and plot-i-licious), Armageddon Arc(You guessed it! CARD GAMES! Zigfried VS Seto. You knew it was coming), Paradise Tossed Arc(super-special-awesome CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT! Now with canon pairings and extra Kaiba), and the final installment, the East of Sweden Arc(in all of its conclusive glory).
Seems so far off, doesn't it? But no, it'll be over faster than you can say all of the words in the English language. (Probably some time before Christmas) Fluff is imminent!