The next day, Shape is wiping her kitchen counter with a dollop of bleach powder and soggy towel. She's decided to maintain her exaggerated height, not intending to burn through precious magical energies before the dress-up today. She has on a nightgown that fits her stature—an irregular, soft blue one.
She steps away to the living room and opens the door after it's been knocked, not even checking through the peephole. She didn't anticipate her at a specific hour, but Silver seemed the type to come by morning than late afternoon. "Morning!"
It's indeed morning, though not overly so. Getting Shape out of bed early and having to deal with some morning grouchiness was a real concern of Silver, so she'd made sure to run some errands and business in the early hours to pass some time first. She eyes up her peer - The nightgown makes her think she's still too early, but no. Shape seems too bright and awake to have been stirred by the knocking.
"Good morning to you too. I do hope this is an opportune time for us to get started? If you need some amount of minutes I'll happily sit with a cup of tea."
She says, "Yeah, this is a good time. I already ate and was just kinda cleaning up a bit before you arrived; I'll finish tidying up the house in the evening. That being said, I'll make you some tea anyway. I've got like—ten different ones. I remember last time Nina got us like a raspberry tea or something? I could do that if you want, or a different fruity tea." She darts off to the kitchen to boil a plastic kettle. "So, uh, how was last night after I left?"
"Take your pick of tea, dear. Today will test your decision making skills so consider it a warmup." She invites herself into the house, and makes way to the living room. It's a bit well windy out, so she'd rather not stay in the doorway. "It was uneventful. Generic financial numbers." She didn't need to mention checking in with some deeply charmed individuals for valuable insider information she should not under any means have access to.
"Mystery fruit tea it is." She pours a mug of hot water and drops a tea bag of lemon ginger, and she takes it to the living room table. The noir board game from the last week is nowhere to be found, replaced by a cork drink coaster. Shape sits and folds her legs. "That's fair. I just hugged my pillow... So, Stylist, what sort of decisions did you have in mind? After having thought it over a tiny-yy bit, I mostly just realized I wanted to jab at Jae-eun with my 'casual outfit.' Make her feel a bit inadequate, if you know what I mean."
"We can certainly achieve that, dear. I could make you seem more wealthy and professional than you are, if you don't mind. Oh, and for bare foundations. Are you still looking to humor your feminine side today? And in general, your current frame. I know you've had your variances in that aspect so I must ask." She waits on the liquid to cool. It's a shame you can't convince tea in the way you would people. She's had to make people 'cool off' way too many times.
She smiles, and rubs her thumbs together. "I'd love to look wealthy and professional in front of Jae-eun, and doubling as an outfit I can pull for later anyhow. Awesome. Yeah, I want to stay a lady and tall, it kind of works well into intimidating Jae-eun as well but also I didn't want to burn out some of my energy we could use for adjusting clothes instead." She glances at her own reflection in the shut-off television flat-screen, and she says, "I also just am a lady lately."
"That does make sense. You make a wonderful lady, Shape. Emphasizing and elevating that aspect we can certainly focus on. I think... A skirt is certainly in order. Nothing too excessive, a proper business casual, but it can't be too secretary either. You're meant to seem successful, not an asset to others. I won't go overboard though, else Jae-eun may pry and wonder why she hasn't heard of your wealth and fame yet." Silver takes out a small notebook and jots down these notes. "There's colors... I'm not sure a strikingly monochrome would work with your brown hair. Something more delicate, soft in nature rather. Going along with the browns seems good, and you have your beige leanings already."
"That's definitely the nicest thing you've said about me," She says softly. She leans back. "You really do have a good knack for this. I can already tell this is going to be wonderful working with you. If you have more questions maybe to guide it, let me know, but I really like the idea of a skirt that's not too quaint or too excessive and the idea of a palette of browns and beiges. I'm curious how we'll capitalize on those colors, Stylist Silver." She sometime then snaps her fingers, and she says, "Oh, I should mention, Jae-eun basically used to be famous, even like a popstar for one point. Should I try and be trendy too, or nah? I'm kind of just a sack of bones, really."
"Trendy does require you to play the part; I think being a bit too busy and important to have time for the newest trends on the street is an easier role to fill. And does explain our company better as well. We might just as much be business partners, to Jae-eun."
Silver sketches out a very rough first idea, and offers it to Shape. A blouse covered by a somewhat cropped jacket, a skirt to above the knees and leggings. Blouse labeled with pale beige or white, leggings in beige, and the jacket/skirt in a medium brown.
"That's a first idea, at the least. Oh, and a fashionable purse can't be amiss."
"Hah, yeah—Jae-eun's totally going to think we work together as business partners. Maybe I won't act trendy, no, but I'll definitely act the part of all business. Sounds fun." Shape studies the sketch for longer than a few seconds, rendering a depiction in her visual imagination. She closes her eyes and changes purely her outfit to be compatible to Shape's interpretation. So she has the reasonable blouse, leggings, skirt, jacket, and purse combination now—the blouse chosen to be white and the purse chosen to be a bit glittery and matching beige to her leggings. "How close is this to what you were thinking?"
Silver is again, quite charmed by the process of magic that renders Shape now... Certainly dressed, that's for sure. Silver can't help but be amused. "The core idea is certainly good, but... I'd refuse to pay a tailor if they made you something like this. We have much details to fix. It's a good attempt though! I need you to stand up so I can get a... Thorough inspection of details. I can't let you go out with a potentially catastrophic butt of skirt." She's already taking plenty of notes on seams, cuts, hues. "Also, that purse is a good one but. Half as much glitter, maybe. You can have some, as a treat, but that's too much."
She laughs and says, "We have all morning." She stands from the couch and rotates her outfit for Silver like some kind of fashion runway star, but more neurotic. "Fine. Half glitter it is. And yeah, some other stuff I guess you're getting to."
...Several minutes later, Shape adjusts the seam on her skirt once again and slightly darkens the color of her jacket. It's been several slight adjustments, but thankfully most of the adjustments were one or two-time fixes; however, a few have been harder to visualize for Shape to Silver's thinking and so were more of a crapshoot. She takes a deep breath, and she walks around the table slowly. "Alright... How does this hug my waist now when I move? Does everything else look perfect? I got at least a few more dashes of magic left in me..."
"That's pretty good. We could spend an hour more on this if you had the power, but really we'd be going in circles around perfection more so than achieving it. I consider this successful, presentable, stylish even." She leans in again to browse the finer details, which now most importantly seem quite realistic. She's gotten a good, comprehensive understanding of Shape's... shape, in the process. Being able to shift into such an attractive and impressive feminine build is a thing many would envy. "I'd be ready to go any moment now."
"Oh, well, that's a relief. I'm just glad I got really close to your exact image you had in mind for me. And, yeah, wow." Shape uses the dull, dark reflection of the powered-off television to examine her outfit on her. She smiles, and she twirls her skirt. She laughs. "I hardly can believe this is an outfit we can confidently say is mine. I think every other outfit I've ever been in quite this nice has just been when I was someone else entirely. You know, like when impersonating specific wealthy people maybe. I'd have to tell you about the time I pretended to be some princess. Come on, though, yeah. Car's in the garage." Soon, Shape opens the large garage door by pushing a button on the wall in the garage, and she takes her purse, staff, and keys into the driver's side. Her vehicle is orange and a little dirty on the outside but maintained on the seats and floor. Silver and her take turns to outside the neighborhood and onto the major highway.
"I never pinned you for a person with a taste of orange, dear. Unless you have the ability to shapeshift your car too and this is just a phase." Silver chuckles and allows herself into the passenger seat, taking more than necessary to adjust it exactly to her liking. It seems to be needed, perhaps, as it renders Shape's optimistic driving style a bit more comfortable. Being used to business pickups, she's experienced a variety of drivers though in most cases she'd use her influence to placate the more unruly ones. "I tell you're older than you look, by the way you drive. No judgement, though."
"Eh, I actually just sort of got a used car some years back. I'd have picked a better color if this wasn't such a good deal. Barely any miles on this thing, and it has pretty ample legroom as you can see. But, yeah, the gas mileage is kinda not as good as you'd expect. Maybe why they sold it." She briefly darts an eye at Silver and says, "Look, plenty of young people probably drive exactly like this. Anyway. I'm not really looking forward to having to talk to the fox lady again, but tell you what, I honestly think it'll be fun anyway to team up with you and show you the potions stuff. The results might vary, but it should at least be fun. Wouldn't you agree?" She smiles again checking the rear view mirror. And she puts some quiet audio to the radio. It's just jazz. "You can change the music to whatever, if you want."
"I do suppose that makes sense. There's such a distinct difference between family cars and business vehicles. Especially the expensive kind that's designed from the base up for business. All the knobs and devices are meant to blend in well for looks, not to be easily identifiable to anyone who may look for them." Silver observes the interior of the car with some interest, testing various features.
"Potions, I hope, could serve some very interesting purposes. Is she really just that much of a hassle or is this more of a personal beef? Actually, I can expect a biased answer on that so..." There's a pause. "Anyhow. We'll try to have our fun, certainly." She doesn't mind the Jazz and allows it to continue.
Shape shakes her head and then breathes in. "I think it's a bit of both, to answer your question anyway. No, really. But, yeah, you'll make your own opinion of course... Yeah, it'll be fun. Glad you agree." The stretch of the plains is only broken up with an occasional hill and crest. They pass two antelope with heart-shaped butts. And she taps the wheel. "Next exit. It's a smaller town actually, I think there's a bit more natural and magical influence there which is why Jae-eun's there. So, uh, what kind of purposes, for the potions I mean? I can't imagine much being more helpful than your current ability, but I guess you're still in the market. And when we get there, what, are you just going to take her word for it and drink some of these?"
Silver rests her head back, somewhat unpleased by Shape's elaborations. She's right, there's a bit of trust in taking potions... But, would there be any market in selling potions that do random things and are potentially hazardous? How is Jae-eun in business if she can't utilize the potions in any useful capacity? There has to be some manner of potential in these mixtures, Silver can feel it. "If she is proud enough of the potions, she can give some demonstrations for us. What kind of magic trader would she be if she's uncertain of her own ware? If I then feel confident enough, we'll see." She watches road signs go by the car.
"Hah, yeah, good one. We could ask her to give us a demonstration. Maybe she'd agree to that. In any case, the worst thing a regular potion can do is probably just be really disorientating for an hour or so, so that's not too bad. But yeah the thing is like it's pretty easy to make bad potions and harder to make really refined potions. And, well, it's not as closely regulated of a business model as you might expect. It's kinda more like, well, the stores that sell weed, I guess?" She laughs. They turn into an exit and instead of driving toward the main city labyrinth take a detour into some less maintained road just a couple minutes away. And, by a small ring of primarily mom and pop stores and restaurants, Shape parks her car. "So, business partners, right? What's our story?" She walks out with her staff tilted down and her purse slung over her shoulder, locking the car behind them. The storefront has some generous photos of Jae-eun a decade ago along with general forest imagery and purples, oranges, and pinks. A sign hangs over the door: "Jae-eun Pop!"
Silver scans across the streets with some curiosity. It's a quaint little place, definitely not an uncomfortable place to come back to, certainly. "Hm. You're certainly trying hard to dissuade me, if that's your intent. I'll simply have to find out the hard way, if I'm meant to be disappointed." She waves away a younger child that seems to have mild interest for Shape's staff. "Our story is that you're an aspiring and fairly well-faring... trader? Of unexciting wares. We met at a convention where you tried to snoop some scoops and over some drinks you ended up mentioning her store which I simply have a peculiar fascination for. So as an innocent sub-clause of an agreement, you promised to take me here. Because I have more money and could simply have turned down your passable offer without repercussion."
She allows Shape to enter the store first, and looks around. It's not exactly the most bright atmosphere, seeing as it's not a strictly sunny day and the photos do cover up the outside light a fair amount. There's... Memorabilia, trinkets, and otherwise - Silver realizes this is a front for the potion trade, most likely. Explains the reduced regulation and such, certainly. She sighs, and shows some stray curiosity to objects in the corner, in hopes that Shape makes the first contact with the store owner.
"Like I said, it'll be a fun time in any case, Silver. And I guess it's helpful to remember I'm pretty freaking jaded at this point by stuff like this, so it's sort of nice to have someone with, well, fresh eyes." She nods at their fabricated business story, and she ignores the stocked items in favor of waving down the person at the cash register. Because a small family is also perusing the shelves, Shape keeps her voice low on the approach. "Hey. Since when did Jae-eun get staff? I needed to talk to her directly with my interested business partner over in the corner, with the silver hair. In particular, it was about the potions. Please tell me Jae-eun is here and pull her out here."
The cashier pulls the wired phone on his deck and presses a specific key, and he relays this. And sure enough, he says, "Jae-eun will be waiting for you in the staff door behind me. She'd rather you walk into there."
Shape shrugs. "Well, all right." And she then calls behind her for Silver, and waves her hand, before slipping into the door. And immediately even Silver can overhear a woman say, "SHAPE!? Shape—what the hell are you doing here!?"