"Weiss… what is this place?" Ruby was looking at the window just outside the store that was in what appeared at first glance to be an extremely small house.
"Don't let the look fool you. The appearance is for security." Weiss opened the door and led Ruby in. Weiss walked down the hall and stepped onto the stairs directly in front of her.
Ruby watched Weiss slowly descend as the stairs started moving. Ruby quickly jumped on the step behind Weiss and waited as they moved in a slow descent. The stairs spiraled several times before the end appeared, a white hole in the otherwise dark staircase.
"No way!" Ruby stepped off the stairs and looked out from a balcony suspended over a warehouse filled with dresses of every imaginable color and style. Weiss was already conversing with a man at a desk to the side and Ruby turned back to the dresses. Looking closer, she noticed they were being handled by robots that would zoom down the isles and pick a dress off one of the thousands of racks before zipping back below the balcony.
"Ruby! Come here!" Ruby jumped at Weiss's order and raced to her side. "I'm finished. Now we're going to find you a dress."
"If you will please step this way." The man behind the counter said as he exited the employee area and walked down the balcony. "You can try on dresses here."
He waved his hand at a large looking stall and walked away. Ruby was now confused as to what was happening. Normally they had to give you a dress to try on before you could actually do anything.
"Don't just stand there. Come on." Weiss was already pushing the door open and moving to sit on a chair.
Ruby followed to find a room large enough for a single chair and two people to stand at arms length. She looked around and found a mirror directly opposite the chair.
Weiss sighed, realizing that this was Ruby's first time in an Atlas style dress shop. She closed the door and locked it before taking the chair.
"Welcome to Universal Dress, Vale. My name is Carmon. Please remove your clothing and stand in the center of the room." A cool female voice said from the speakers of the room as the air turned warmer.
"Wha…?" Ruby looked around for the source but found none.
"It's an AI, Ruby. Just follow the instructions." Ruby nodded, trusting her teammate and started to strip her cloak and other clothes that she gave Weiss to hold. She was about to reach for her underwear when she paused, looking at Weiss who picked up on the unspoken question in her peripheral vision. "Leave them on. The sensors aren't that advanced."
Ruby nodded and moved back to the center of the room where the voice continued its instruction. "Please hold your arms directly out to your sides and spread your feet shoulder width apart while I complete a scan of your body."
Ruby shivered slightly and felt a warm breeze envelop her. She was confused at the strange temperature and looked over at Weiss who seemed to be redder than normal.
"Is the heat on in here?" Ruby asked out of curiosity as Weiss kept her eyes on the floor as they had been the entire time Ruby'd undressed.
"Yes, it's to make this easier since some people end up in here for several hours at a time." Weiss explained, waiting for the scan to finish. Eventually a chime went off and Weiss looked up.
"Scan complete. Please evaluate the suggested dress."
"Um…" Ruby didn't know what to do so she looked at Weiss.
Weiss inspected the solidly projected dress it'd placed on Ruby with a smirk. It was a childs dress that was bright pink with frills like the princesses in movies wore. "It fits."
"Come on, that's not funny!" Ruby complained moving her arms back to her sides, the dress moving with her arms so she could see it in the mirror.
"Right size, Carmon. Wrong age." Weiss chuckled to the room.
"My mistake. Which age and/or event would you like to look for?" Carmon asked in response to Weiss.
"I was thinking general purpose, new years. And between sixteen and eighteen." Weiss responded with the same options she'd used to find her dress. There were many more dresses there that would be suitable for the occasion.
"Calculating best dress…" Carmon was silent for a moment before Ruby's body flashed into a completely different dress. "Current dress style: 05864352. Suggested age: 18. Suggested events: New Years Party."
"I think it looks… okay?" Ruby asked Weiss who was once again looking away.
"A bit revealing, isn't it?" She responded with her own question. "Yang I could understand, but I don't think it suits you."
"I guess you're right." Ruby nodded. "Um, Carmon? Maybe one a bit more conservative?"
The room flashed again, this time Ruby was wearing some interestingly patterned piece of fabric that went from the top of her neck all the way down to the floor.
"Weiss? A little help?" Ruby looked at Weiss who was having a desperate attempt to keep her laughter in.
"Sorry… that's too f-funny!" Weiss burst into giggles as Ruby took in the dress in the mirror. It was really one of the most amazing blunders the system had ever made in Weiss's opinion, and she couldn't help laughing at the odd and horrible dress.
"Carmon I wan't something that won't make everyone around me laugh!" Ruby shouted above Weiss's laughing and the dress's description.
"Current dress style: 48633432, Suggested age: 18. Suggested events: New Years Party. Suggested color: Red." Carmon announced after another flash.
Weiss heard the number and her giggles disappeared. This can't be… but it is!
Weiss watched as Ruby turned and inspected herself in the dark red dress. It had a meshy looking piece that went over her shoulders and down her back that seemed to hold up the actual fabric. The front was split in two, held together with the mesh and what looked strikingly similar to Ruby's corset elastics. A large black sash with an equally sized bow rested around her waist and the skirt had a small black stripe lining the bottom to accent its edge.
Weiss stared in awe at the projection as Ruby turned back and forth, looking at the dress from different angles and watching the realistic projection follow her movements and sway as if it were the real thing.
"Weiss? How does it look?" Ruby asked turning to Weiss.
"I… I mean its… its nice." Weiss said with difficulty, trying to get past her own speech barrier to tell Ruby her real opinion.
"Well, I like it, but I guess I could try on more. Are there any other ones sort of like this one?" Ruby asked the room as she looked back to the mirror, admiring the dress one last time before it would disappear.
"Would you like to see the companion dress?" Carmon asked after a few seconds of processing Ruby's dialogue.
"NO!" Weiss almost shouted making Ruby spin back to face her partner. "I… we'll take that one Carmon."
"Current dress added to your order. Would you like to continue shopping for a third dress?" Carmon asked.
"Wait. I thought you didn't like this one?" Ruby asked Weiss, confused with her sudden reaction.
"Order cancelled. Would you like to continue on to the next dress?" Carmon spoke again over the speaker in the ceiling.
"Don't cancel the order!" Weiss ordered quickly. "And its not that I didn't like it. I said it was nice. So put it back in the cart Carmon!"
"Dress added." Carmon said in her monotonous voice.
"No. Dont add it!" Ruby responded. "If you really liked it, you would say something like 'Oh Ruby, you look great in that!' or 'That dress looks amazing!' I probably can't afford it anyway!"
"Dress-" Carmon started just to be cut off.
"Oh, so you think I'd just let you get some rag that you don't like because you can afford it? Add it to the cart! The dress is on me." Weiss said, her voice trailing off to a whisper and her head dropping to the floor before snapping back up to look at Ruby. Her eyes blazing with her signature icy gaze. "And how could I ever call anything you wear anything other than nice when you're so beautiful you can make almost anything look good?!"
Weiss continued to stare at Ruby as what she just said started to sink in.
"W-what did you just say?" Ruby asked quietly.
"W-w-what?" Weiss's eyes were already wide with shock and fear as she realized she'd actually said what she'd been thinking out loud.
"You said…" Ruby breathed into the silent room, her voice cracking and failing.
"Dress added." Carmon interjected in the silence between the two girls.
"Forget what I said." Weiss said in a slightly shaky voice before holding out Ruby's clothes for her. "We're done here Carmon. Get the order ready. We'll need them by Wednesday."
Ruby silently dressed while Weiss kept her gaze averted. The second she closed the clasp on her cape, Weiss had the door unlocked and was out walking down the balcony to the front desk. Ruby followed slowly, giving Weiss some room as she thought over the entire conversation.
"Remnant to Ruby? Dunce, do you copy?" Weiss waved her hand in front of Ruby's face as she snapped back to reality. "We're done here. Let's go."
Ruby followed Weiss back up the stairs and out of the building. Without a word exchanged between them, Weiss hailed a cab to take them back to Beacon.