hugtopia | On the Allure of Multiversal Fashion [video]

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On the Allure of Multiversal Fashion [video]

Good afternoon. This is Dorothy Pratt speaking. This is my first time posting on the ‘network’ - hopefully I’m doing it properly?

[Dot, rarely seen in anything less than a full ensemble, has doffed her jacket and hat and rolled up her sleeves. Her layers of turn of the century clothing are much more breathable than one might think but that doesn’t mean they’re impervious to the heat. She definitely looks Warm.]

I’ve had something on my mind for a while now and the incessant heat seems like as good a catalyst to bring it up as any. I’d like to conduct a little research.

What is fashion like on your world? Even just from those of you I’ve already met, I gather that it’s quite different from my own. [Indeed, as a proper Victorian lady, she looks rather out of place among you RPG protagonists and modern or fantasy types.] I consider myself a fairly fashionable sort so naturally, I’m very curious about it.

So tell me: What is popular back home? And what about you yourself? Do you follow the trends, or carve out your own style? Most importantly, will you tell me about, or better still, show me some of your favorite outfits? I’d be happy to share an insight into London’s trends with you all in return.

Thank you kindly for your participation.

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[Oh! Oh! He can do this! What an easy request! Tamaki shows up on the video feed with the communicator propped up, probably on a table, so he can stand back enough for Dot to see his whole outfit.]

This is what I came here wearing. It's not too unusual for the place I came from, but it's nicer than the kind of stuff I grew up with. [It is also a little, uh, much, for this heat, so he shrugs off the jacket and pulls down the hood on his hoodie as he continues.] I like wearing stuff that's comfortable, and that isn't an unusual way to dress.

Oh, wonderful! [Dot claps her hands together.] Thank you so much for sharing.

I must ask, though: is it common to wear the cloak underneath your jacket like that? [Hoodie. She's taking about your hoodie.] They're generally outerwear where I'm from.

[Her question makes him pause for a moment to just kind of... evaluate what she said.]

I guess? [He tugs at the hem of the hoodie a bit.] You'd wear this to stay warm, but jackets are, like, outer outer wear. [The topmost thing!] If I wanted to stay warm at school, I'd have to wear my uniform jacket on top of everything else.

Mm, so more like an overcoat. [She nods in understanding without actually fully understanding.]

Does it get quite cold where you're from, then? There is hardly any weather in the Neath, especially in London proper.

[He has no idea what the Neath is, but will go ahead and assume it's some kind of colloquial name for the specific place Dot is from in London. They call things silly names there all the time, right?]

Sometimes? Only for winter, and I guess a little while in spring in fall, but not nearly as cold. I've got a warmer coat for when it snows and stuff.

[That they do, Tamaki. And just like that, Dot continues to pass as someone who hasn't been living in a hole in the ground for the past half decade! Incredible!]

Snow! How delightful! I hadn't seen real snow in years prior to coming here.

If you don't mind my asking, what area and time period did you come from? [She has produced a little notebook and started scribbling down things.]

[Oh, those are questions he hasn't been asked before here! How novel.]

Um, I'm from Japan, that's what you're asking, right? [As far as 'Area' goes, since she mentioned being from London and all.] And it was 2015 when I came here, so probably, like... 2017 now? Since I've been here for a while and all.

[ There's a big, dreamy sigh from Kyoko, a hand clapped to her cheek. ]

I try to follow the trends, but a girl on a budget is always gonna be at least three steps behind. It's probably just my destiny to stare into shop windows forever...

But! [ She perks herself up. ] You've got real style, Miss Dot! [ Pulling the camera back for a better view of the sundress she's wearing today, complete with exposed shoulders!, gasp, Kyoko gives a sheepish giggle. ] I think I'd have to wear a kimono or a full suit every day to get on your level.

[Goodness! She's practically in her undergarments!! Before Dot can comment on the matter, though, the shock dissolves into a warm (if slightly flabbergasted) smile at the compliment.]

H-ho, you think? Well, I'm flattered to hear you say so. I do understand, though. A reporter's salary is not especially large, and the premier tailors back home won’t even acknowledge you unless you have echoes hand over fist, to say nothing of the right connections.

["On her level", eh? She leans back slightly.] Kimonos... ah, they're robes, right? I've seen pictures of them in books about the Orient. I had thought they were fairly standard attire in those countries. Are they not?

[ In all fairness, the bare shoulders are kind of a rarity for Kyoko--that's just how this dress is! And it's too hot for a cardigan over top! ]

Ah--yes! It used to be that way. [ A bit of an oversimplification, perhaps, but Kyoko's not prepared to get into the full history of Japanese clothing right at this moment. ] It's been a few generations since Western clothes got popular in Japan, by now. You can still see people wearing kimonos and yukatas and such, though--when I was growing up, I actually did wear one a lot, but that's not exactly normal.

Yes, I've just discovered - or rather, confirmed - that I'm likely from quite a deal in the past for many of you. That would certainly explain the discrepancy in my knowledge. [She inhales deeply, lets it out, then chuckles.] It explains a lot of things, really.

Why did you often wear one, if you don't mind my asking?

[ Gosh... is Miss Dot really only figuring this out right now? Kyoko hadn't known for sure, but after meeting other folks from the past in Havenwell previously, it had seemed like a pretty reasonable guess to make. She's not going to say any of that, though. ]

Ah--that must be a real shock! It's kinda strange to think that we're not all just from different worlds, but different points in time, huh?

Oh--it was a work uniform, more or less. That's all.

[Dot seems conscious of the fact that she ~~failed a low level Watchful check~~ should've officially put two and two together sooner - she looks a little embarrassed, though she's taking it in stride.] I'd suspected as much, of course, but to have it really confirmed by someone else - to find out just how far ahead of me you all are... it's definitely a surprise.

A work uniform, I see. You really are a very diligent young lady, Kyoko. Very admirable. Are dresses like the one you've got on now common for girls your age in your time?

[ Poor Dot... Kyoko really isn't sure what reassurance she can offer in a situation like this! What an awkward scenario! ]

You--you really have adjusted well, though, it seems like! If you didn't tell me, I don't think I would have guessed you didn't know!

[ And she won't comment on that remark about admirable diligence, aside from a small ] Um, thank you...

But this is a pretty normal dress where I'm from, yes! But if you were wondering, there's a lot of variety too, in what girls wear nowadays--besides dresses and skirts in different styles, everyone wears pants, shorts, leggings and so on. You can go pretty wild with it.

[A fellow not-modern person! Isn't that nice to see.]

The fashion of my world is pretty eclectic. In the land of the dead, people from all eras are wandering about, so you can find stuff from the eighteen hundreds just as well as modern things people like, like t-shirts and the hood things. You just need to know where to look.

[He won't bother with Hell's fashions. That could be eclectic too, but not nearly as much. At least, not in the ways he wants to discuss.]

I like the things from my own era, of course. The new stuff might be comfortable, but its kind of ugly and nothing looks, feels, or fits quite as nice as a good suit jacket and a button-up shirt. I used to have some nice charro suits too but that was a long time ago.

[And then, much too late, he remembers he's dressed in rags. He already had the camera lifted, but he lifts it just a bit higher.]

I, ah, haven't really thought about good fashion for a while though, admittedly.

[Dot hasn't fully figured out she's not modern. Or rather, she has suspected she was in the future from the start but she's never had a solid time frame - never known with absolute certainty that not everyone was in the same temporally displaced boat. It seems as though that's about to change. The fact Héctor puts '1800s' and 'modern' as two distinct categories catches her attention - there's a look of surprise on her face that gives way to consideration and, perhaps, a tiny bit of skepticism.]

...And what era would you be from?

[There were several other things she wanted to address from his explanation too, of course, but this took priority.]

Ah. That's complicated. [He smiles sheepishly.] I died in nineteen twenty one. That's the era I mean I'm from, but technically my spirit was around until twenty something... I think seventeen? Modern times tend to be two thousand or whatever. It seems to vary with each world but it's usually two thousand and something.

[Hang on, just gotta... let that soak in.]

...nearly 120 years...

[Dot leans forward, slapping her hands on her lap. She looks somewhere between amazed and completely baffled.]

Oh my God, I'm ancient!

I suspected this place was in the future but I didn't realize I was from the past! ...Or maybe I did, on some level. It makes sense, certainly. It was easy enough to write it off as merely different worlds, but this–!

Ahh, I'm getting carried away. [She shakes her head and pats her cheeks.] My goodness. I suppose that means we're both fish out of water here, aren't we...sorry, I don't believe I caught your name?

[He tries not to laugh. He really, really tries. He swallows it back and he covers his mouth with a hand, but there's no denying amusement. He manages to get it down to just a slight grin when he lowers his hand and answers.]

Perdóname, Señora. I'm Héctor. Héctor Rivera-Adomaitis. But you can just call me Héctor, if that's not too forward.

[It has been a long time since he worried about that.]

I've had a much longer time to get used to the future stuff, thankfully. Or the present, rather. But it is a tough time to figure things out initially. It looks like you're doing well with the camera though.

[No it's okay, go ahead and laugh. Even though she's a touch embarrassed, Dot can’t deny the whole thing is rather humorous.]

Mm. I've been here nearly a year now, surprisingly enough, so I've had some time to get acclimated. [She pauses, reflecting on that thought. A year already... Wow she is just having a lot of time-related revelations today, isn’t she? Eventually she offers a smile.]

It’s a pleasure, Héctor. You can call me Dot if you'd prefer. So you said you come from the Land of the Dead? Is that as fascinating as it sounds?

[Dot. Perfect. He beams.]

Mucho Gusto, Dot. And, absolutely. It's a wonderful place. Mind you, that's just the afterlife for my world. There are many more out there. But I'm quite fond of mine.

[Even if... it didn't treat him well...]

It's a brilliant and colorful world where all the past meets the present- literally, as the city is built up upon itself with each new generation of people. You could not imagine a city more full of life. Joke intended but still factual.

Edited 2021-08-24 01:47 (UTC)

A lively, colorful afterlife... That sounds quite nice. [Dot smiles thoughtfully.] A far cry from a dark and gloomy river. [To be fair, that was more limbo than an afterlife proper, but still. Dark and gloomy was almost always the look du jour around Fallen London.]

The place I live was quite literally built on past generations as well, though there are only handfuls of survivors from the previous cities left. I can only imagine how enlightening it is to be able to learn about history straight from the mouths of those who lived it.

Gloomy river? That's greek isn't it? [Was it Styx or is he confusing that with his goblin buddy from Hell...

Not so important as what she's saying. He looks curious, maybe a little concerned.]

It was pretty cool! Though, honestly, the really old ones are so famous it's hard to reach them to speak to personally. I only saw Moctezuma in passing, like, once during a crappy job.

Did... something happen to your cities...?

Ah, like the Styx? Yes, something somewhat like that.

[…Oh. Oh right. She’s been here long enough now to have learned that the concept of Falling a city is foreign to most of the people she has encountered and its process is generally not met positively. Understandably so, of course - it’s rather horrible. Because of that, she hesitates a moment before explaining:]

Throughout history, the Masters have stolen five cities underground. My current home, London, is the fifth. I wasn’t alive when it fell, so I don’t know all the details, but they say the process is usually done by dropping the new city on top of the previous one. [There’s a somewhat detached sadness in her voice. She folds her hands together on top of her lap.]

Death is, ah, peculiar down there so there are more survivors than you might expect but… much of the culture of the earlier cities is lost to time beneath the rubble. It makes for riveting archeology work but it doesn’t hold a candle to experiencing it in its prime.

Ah, and here I thought we might be from the same world. [This is more like Nekane's, he thinks with the worlds mashing up together and all the countries within doing the same.] There's a London England in my world but it's an ocean away from me, in Santa Cecilia Mexico. There were... other happenings, but I know London was still around in my time.

It does sound fascinating though, getting to see what was. Can you explain the peculiar death thing?

[He barely even flinched! Dot can’t help but let out a relieved little sigh]

I must confess, you took that information much better than I expected! But yes, it seems that way. Different versions of the same Earth… [She’s curious about those ‘other happenings’ but something in his tone suggests she might be better off not bringing it up. Not right away, at least.]

To put it simply, death doesn’t have a firm hold on residents of the Neath. Unlike on the surface, it is not necessarily permanent.

[He laughs sheepishly.]

Ah, well, I've sort of... been around the block, you could say. Met a couple people from other worlds where they had stories like that. Sometimes whole planets would get mashed up or disappear. Not all earths but a lot of them.

I suppose I'm a little familiar with less permanent deaths too. Though I think that gets complicated no matter the situation.

Fashions vary by region. Those of the warmer climes of Dalmasca will be different to those commonly found at the higher altitudes of Bhujerba.

[What delightfully foreign-sounding names! Like something out of a fantasy novel.]

That certainly makes sense. We don’t have much diverse climate in the Neath, aside from when you zail North.

Which of those regions are you from?

Neither. My time is largely spent in Archades.

And what sort of clothing do they wear there?

It varies. Though the climate is cooler than that of Dalmasca, there is a marked difference between those of high status and those of lower status when it comes to manner of dress.

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On the Allure of Multiversal Fashion [video]

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R.I.P Dot

Local Victorian Destroyed by Temporal Shenanigans

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