11818/Dress Up Date

Dress Up Date
Date of Scene:	29 June 2022
Location:	Garment District
Synopsis:	Jean takes Rogue to the Fashion district to see a friend from her model days. Makeover montage ensues!
Cast of Characters:	Jean Grey, Rogue

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Jean Grey has posed:
Jean had called up Rogue with a vague request to meet her in 'the city,' where she was already out and about on some rare non-school business. The details of the meeting were left scarce, even mysterious: "Just come down and we'll meet up after I'm done!" She gets an address too. 34th and 7th avenue. Right in the middle of thbe action! Madison Square Garden! Stuff! Clothes!

Also the train goes there!

And indeed, Jean can eventually be found standing at that very intersection, hanging around outside the corner drug store by the very same subway entrance. And for once, Jean is as far from the usual 'librarian chic' that defines her mode of dress as headmistress. No, quite the opposite. It's hot, and so she's rocking rather short denim shorts and green tie-front crop top. So long sleeves, and bare almost everything else, shoulders, upper arms, and tummy! Add some high-heeled ankle boots and she looks model-tall. It's all a bit of a blast from the past, like a few images from a certain private instagram...

"There you are!" she calls when her most very good friend arrives, hoisting her bag higher on her shoulder.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue had been out and about when she got the call. She'd actually been out flying, as it were! Buuuut, where Jean is dressed to impress in her womanly revealing attire, Rogue is dressed in her... green and gold bodysuit, with her thigh high yellow boots, on and her leather jacket worn over it. She does have her suit unzipped down to her chest though, since its pretty hot out today, and that helps the breathable material let even more air down in to her suit.

She comes right out of a alleyway and is quite easy to spot dressed like she is.

A grin flashes over her as she sees Jean, and what the redhead is wearing, her hand goes up to push her sunglasses atop her head then, her wild hair loose around her shoulders...

"Well, well, well... ain't this a sight?" The Belle says with a happy expression on her youthful features. She stops in front of Jean, and gives her a once over, up and down, before tilting her head. "Have ya finally snapped, and decided t'get back inta the modeling game?" She inquires, playfully of course.

Jean Grey has posed:
The remark causes Jean to smirk and start to strike a pose, like something from a magazine cover. Yet before Rogue can spend too much time gawking at this marvelous sight... Well, this is RIGHT in the middle of one of the busiest parts of the city, so Rogue's full Mighty Maid appearance draws some attention! People stop and gawk. Some tourists take pictures. A dude whistles!

Jean watches all of this, standing akimbo with an amused look on the outside of the crowd. She gives them all a moment, and Rogue time to enjoy her celebrity, before a quick little telepathic nudge sends them ambling back on their way. "I didn't think you'd be 'working' when I called!" she admits, with a laugh, and makes a show of returning the appraising, up-and-down look. Except in her case, the evaluation is a disapproving 'tsk, tsk.'

"We really can't do anything with you dressed like THIS," she finally declares. "But that's alright!" This actually fits her plans! "You're not too far off. Not that I have time to get back into the biz of course, but there's a conference I'm going to, kind of a fancy black tie thing, and I decided to call up one of my old friends from those days to see if I could swing a coture fitting for old times... anyway it turned into a whole thing, and now I need backup. So congrats..."

She juts a finger toward the other woman's chest. "You're it!"

Rogue has posed:
Of course when people actually recognize her as one of the city's local heroes, Rogue is quick to join in on the revelry. She takes a photo with that fella who comes up with his camera phone. She smiles to the one who wolf whistles at her, and offers a wave to a handful of other people before she finally steps over to Jean, with a big grin. She looks down at herself, and pulls the zipper up on the suit some. "Well, that explains some of that..." She says with a smirk. "Damn thing comes down some while flyin..." She then clears her throat.

A smile reappears on her face then as she glances at the store they're beside, then looks back to the redhead before her. She leans over to peer in one of the bags that Jean has. "What are you talkin' about, with your fancy pants words?" She inquires then, of course knowing what Couture means, she's just being silly.

"You're not gonna put me in a dress and drag me t'some borin' ass genetic lecture up at one'a the universities, or some shit, are ya?" She asks as someone passes by and calls out 'Mighty Woman'. This gets a smile and a wave from Rogue.

Jean Grey has posed:
"Well..." Jean drawls out, with just a touch of some sense of hesitation. "For now, I just want someone to come along with me to try on some clothes, maybe give me a second opinion! You know how these fashion people are!" Why would Rogue know such things?! "They don't have the same kind of... well, sensibility as you do!"

This could be a huge compliment. Or insult. Or both!

"Annnnnnnd I'm sure they'll let you try some on too. You know... Just for fun!" There is just the slightest sense that Jean is not exactly giving the full picture here, somehow. "C'mon. You'll love it! Life's not all leather jackets, you know. Mix it up a little. Variety's the spice of life!"

Without waiting for much in the way of agreement to this seemingly hairbrained plan, Jean moves closer and loops her arm into one of those jumpsuited, jacketed ones. "And it's just around the corner. All the biggest fashion houses have studios around here."

The neighborhood name's not just for show, apparently!

...

Fast forward to a few minutes later, and they've gone into an old converted factory building, taking one of those old cage style freight elevators up to a massive open floor, the classic New York style artistic loft, with the big windows. Of course, it's just perfect for fashion, and some young woman is gushing over the pair, taking measurements and going on about her own Mighty Maid fandom...

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is entirely used to Jean saying things to her that she's pretty sure is either a compliment or a backhanded slight. She likes them, they're usually very creative! A grin, and a boop to Jean's nose before she offers that arm that is hooked on to. "Sounds like a hoot..." She tells her counterpart before they head off.

The Belle pauses them at a trash can beside the store's entrance, and she pulls a couple of wadded up Bud Light cans out of her jacket pocket, then drops them in. "There. Okay, lets go."

Classy! Mighty Woman gets a few more pics taken of her before she goes on in with Jean!

Of course, once inside, Rogue is a chatterbox about the place, saying how she usually just avoids these places cause she'll end up spending too much money, or she'll have to punch some bitch clerk who gives her the Julia Roberts Pretty Woman treatment...

Once they make it up that lift to the clothing area though, Rogue removes her leather jacket and drapes it over a chair, then is just in that skin tight bodysuit, the green sections of it a glossy leather, while the yellow is a smooth and supple fabric that breathes quite well to keep her body cool in the summer. She actrually has a ton of different versions of this outfit, though only someone who knows her well like Jean, would be able to see the subtle differences in the way they're put together.

Right now? Rogue is standing on a little platform, with her arms out to her sides as she gets her bustline measured. "This is a unusual turn of events for me t'day. I thought I'd end up fightin' a-holes in alleyways... Not... Oop, mind your touch, Sugah." She says with a flirty grin toward the woman taking the tape about her body.

Jean Grey has posed:
This is definitely no usual store! Jean's taken Rogue to the very source, to where the clothes are born! There's no snooty customers doing their bossy Karen routines, and while it does seem like epxensive quality stuff, the situation seems to suggest some sort of... quid pro quo arrangement in lieu of cash.

"Just hush yer mouth and let the lady work, Anna-Marie," Jean scolds, lightly, and in some brief immitation of a southern accent (its pretty bad). "She's gotta get allllll your details. Nicki, don't take any bullshit from this one, you hear me?"

And thus, Rogue gets a very THOROUGH measuring! And when she's done, Nicki gets up to run and get some clothes, rolling them over on a portable rack. "Jean gave me some basic info and we," did she say we? "picked out a few things for you ahead of time, that should fit pretty well. You can try a few on while I go and make some adjustments. We've got a little changing area over there." It's basically just some fold up screens! This is the biz, baby!

Either way, it leaves the two of them and the clothes, and Jean grinning ear to ear. "Let's see, which of these..." Her fingers go over a few hanging outfits. One is decidedly BLACK. But she skips over that one for now, stopping on some rather tiny looking tank top, which she pulls out, and then going through some pants. "Oooh. You know, with how athletic you are, I think you'd wear 'baddie' well, or maybe some retro Y2K-core. Its kind of uh, like a call back to Sporty Spice." Thess are REAL fashion trends. FEAR.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue just exhales a hard huff at the being told to keep her trap shut part. "Challenging!" She counters before just falling quiet and letting the woman do what she wants with that measuring tape. Though there's times where it is very clear that Rogue wants to speak up and say SOMETHING, but she doesn't!

When it's all said and done, and the lady is walking off, Rogue just looks at the rack of clothing that Jean is quickly moving toward. "I'm startin' t'worry about ya." She says to the redhead, watching her pick some stuff out. She grins though, and leans over on top of that little platform...

Ziiiiiiiiip. Ziiiiiiiiiiip!

Rogue steps out of her thigh high boots, then sets them down on the floor before she straightnes up and takes off her leather belt while stepping down on bare feet to the floor of the room. Her belt is hung over her shoulder then as she eyes the tanktop with skepticism. "I'm pretty sure I'm gonna fall outta that thing...." She warns Jean before accepting what is handed to her.

"What is 'Y2k?" She asks with a confused expression.

A moment is taken to sort through what is given to her before Rogue just laughs softly, and shakes her head side to side. "I could never pull this off if we hadn't done all that brain trainin'. Now I know why you were so eager t'help with that." She chides the other with a wink before she saunters off around those little screens...

Her belt is flung up over top of one of them to hang over it, while glimpses of her removing her bodysuit can be seen between the spaces of the screen sections.

"Where does this... oh, I see..." And a second later, the Belle is laughing at something behind her cover...

Jean Grey has posed:
"Haha, right?" echoes Jean. "I've been out of the biz what, five or six years, and it's basically all gibberish to me. Cottagecore, e-girls... All kinds of crazy trends. Anyway, it's kind of a retro thing, turn of the millenium. But maybe you're more a 'baddie.'" Of course Rogue is a baddie!

"That's kind of what I'm wearing. They're both styles that show a lot of skin. And, well..." For all that Rogue shows off her figure, its hard to argue that a literal bodysuit isn't more or less the complete opposite of 'showing skin.' "You've always kind of avoided that. So I thought it might be fun for you to try it." The top is definitely tiny. In fact, it's not even a full tank. It just looked like one from the front! In fact, it's a backless white crop halter, basically amounting to enough material to cover the chest and nothing else, with a variety of small ties - behind the neck and then a few across the back - to secure it.

"Here, try the shorts," she finally decides, abandonning the crazy late 90s, and tossing over a pair that are actually pretty similar to Jean's (gasp: is SHE a baddie?). They're quite short, although also a bit higher waisted. They're tossed over the top of the screen, which brings the other woman close by, as if she's going to peek...

"You done? C'mon! Let's see it!"

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is hit in the head with the shorts and she releases a little whiney noise before pulling the denim off her head, and throwing her two toned hair back over her shoulders. She was working on the tanktop ties when she got hit in the head, but now holds the shorts up to stare at them.

"Ya know..." Rogue responds. "I was gonna ask you for help for buyin' teacherly clothin' this summer, since I'm still gonna pressure you inta makin' me an official faculty member...."

She goes about talking now while she slips in to the scantily clad shorts. One leg after another, even if she can fly... she's trying to be careful with clothing she doesn't own, yet.

She shimmies them up and then secures them around her waist.

"But this is definitely not clothin' I should be wearin' in a classroom settin'. Less its on some adult website."

A second later and she steps out from behind the screens, and presents herself to the redhead. "Ta da!" She says, throwing her arms out to the sides, her top doing little to conceal ANYthing, since she failed to tie it off properly in the back.

"I feel like this is gonna get me in trouble 'out there'." She speaks, of the city of course. "Like, I mean, my milkshake already brings all the boys, girls, and whatevers, t'the yard... but what is this gonna have them bring? The whole damn cow?" She asks, walking over to a mirror beside where Jean is to stand in it, and look at herself in its full length presentation...

Turn to the left, knee forward... Turn to the right, knee forward, leg bendy. Flirt with the mirror.

Rogue puts a hand on her butt and taps the edge of the shorts. "You can see my cheek..." She says with a little bubbly laugh following it.

Jean Grey has posed:
"Pffft. We can get you teacher clothes at the strip mall in Salem." Which sounds like a tacit admission that Jean is open to this Professor Rogue concept! And... also maybe that she already has some kind of fashion vision for this educational persona. "But you don't come to the Fashion District for plaid skirts and sweater vests. This is our day away from all that stuff!"

Also: "Those are barely any shorter than mine!" She objects to this stuff being categorized as INTERNET PORN material!

Despite said objection, when Rogue does finally step out, it's clear that she makes an impression. Jean stands back, arms folded over her chest and expression suggesting careful appraisal, yet there's clearly something more... leering in her gaze!

"Pft, you're just dressing your age." Or maybe like she's a 16 year old on TikTok. She pivots as the other woman passes toward the mirror, and then makes another little 'tsk' as she steps in behind. "You didn't even tie it all the way! Hold still, I'll tie you up." Not like that!

... until later maybe!

"I think it looks fine, but yeah, maybe the shorts are just a little... I'll ask if they have another pair. But isn't this better than covering up in that suit, in weather like this? I don't care how space-age that material is, you gotta let things breathe!"

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is just standing in front of the mirror as Jean fusses with her top. She reaches up to adjust her hair and the shirt how it lays over her otherwise bare shoulders. She just smiles in the mirror, her green eyes staring at Jean while she ties it up, the dark smoky eyeliner she's wearing making those green orbs pop a bit more than they would otherwise.

"Ya know, it's you that even makes it possible for me /to/ wear this kinda stuff without riskin' a lotta people's lives." She says, uh oh, growing sentimental. "Comin' t'the School, and makin' friends with all ya'll, but you... the Professah, Emma too I guess. Ya'll are the reason that I can dress in this wild stuff after years'a convincin' myself that I was gonna have'ta cover up for the rest of time."

Her eyes glance down at herself, her hands go to her stomach, pressing the fabric of the top against her body a little tighter before she looks over her shoulder at Jean. "So thanks." she says, flashing her a smile.

Then her eyes go forward again. "And I can't fight crime like this... I'll be floppin all over the place if I tried..." She starts to laugh at herself then and there.

Jean Grey has posed:
"Mm. Well, you did most of the work. We just helped you along," Jean answers, brushing off the credit she gets, though she looks away as she does. "And they're not for fighting crime! They're just for you to wear _out_. You know, when you want to be dressy. Or fun." She doesn't say out with her, and it's not her being coy. This really is part of that whole journey. "We didn't go through all that work to have you dressed like a nun!" Now she's taking credit! Also: when did Rogue EVER dress like a nun?!

"OK, next!" Jean's fashion victim promptly gets coraled back behind the little dressing screen. She gets to peel herself out of that outfit (ok, not that much peeling, more like, tug a string, and the top drops!) and then stuff is already being shoved into her hands, pieces of the next outfit. "Try these! No, this one. You know what, let's try a different look..."

The pretense of privacy behind the dressing screen quickly wears thin. Like a model at an actual fashion show, they want her in and out of the clothes fast, and modesty becomes something no one has time for. Take that off, wear this. And it's clear neither Jean nor her contact here think much of it. The woman helping, who might have been an intern for a designer back when Jean was doing this, probably treated her own models no differently! Including Jeanie-bean!

Along the way, Rogue is barraged with lingo Some styles are probably familiar, with 90s Grunge and 2000's pop inspired looks returning. Does she like mopey flanel?! Or maybe some kind of tiny baby tee in neon colors? Well, it turns out those are a pretty tight fit, bordering on uncomfortable. NEXT.

Apparently, you can dress like some kind of victorian rustic farm maiden and call it cottagecore (there are a lot of 'cores' in 2020, it seems like!). Several breezy, linen maxi-dresses with laced bodices and fluffy sleeves, whites and creams or floral patterns. From Rogue's perspective, this looks like a trip to the Hellfire Club that took a wholesome turn, rather than the usual debauchery. The dress they pick fits Rogue better, as they cinch in the laces. And in a way, it harkens back to her own rural origins. Eventually, she's told to take it off (and then, ultimately, has it HELPED off up over her head!), but Jean suggests they put it aside. "It'd be a nice one for a day trip in the park, maybe, and we could find you some excessories to vary up the look... This over some big chunky grunge boots would be funny, yeah?"

There's soft and girly looks, cutsie Japanesque things or the more traditionally American palette of pinks and pastels. These? The assistant brings some, but Jean vetoes! Not Rogue. Next? Various artsy, indy, and vintage inspired pieces - like tie-dyes, bell bottoms and halters from the 60s and 70s - ready to be remixed, rematched. And again, Jean vetoes! TOO Rogue. Or too much like what her parents might have worn!

And yes, for Rogue's scholastic aspirations, there are apparently no less than two styles specifically called 'Academia!' They come in DARK and LIGHT versions. These evoke an English private school or preppy ivy-league vibe (not wholly out of place at Xavier's). There are button-downs and crew necks cardigans, there are tweeds and plaids, skirts and stockings. The colors palettes are, well... light and dark. Creams and tans or charcoals and chestnut browns. This also defines a bit of a seasonal divide, shorter, flirtier spring versus a more covered-up autumn term. Jean stands holding several skirts in front of Rogue's waist at one point, debating the lengths. She's already been stuck in a very form-flattering sweater, not unlike some of Jean's librarian looks. "OK, this one for teaching. And THIS one for..."

Jean Grey has posed:
However, the ultimate realization of all of this? They're not doing this for easy instagram likes, and they can't just fit her into a cookie-cutter fashion. They're doing this to find things she can enjoy wearing, fitting her personality... while expanding her horizons just a little. After all, that 'baddie' top even Rogue could see was pushing it! (Not that Jean is vetoing that one...)

"You know I always liked the way you dressed, when you first came to the school..." This is where it begins. The final transformation. Modern fashion has kept goth alive in interesting ways. Where do you think those e-girls found all those bondage-inspired accessories? This is Goth Rogue: the Remix.

The basics are the same: boots, stockings, skirt, short top. Changed? The tight leather skirt becomes a looser (but not longer!) pleated one, with a little bit of a lace fringe at the bottom. It's all black, but Jean advises: "We can get you a couple of these, same silhoutte but in different patterns. So you can bring in a little color when you want, keep the outfit versatile. A red plaid maybe?"

Gone? The tacky see-through pullover. However, the spirit remains, in a see-through element. "We call this a 'contrast' style," Jean explains. It's basically a combination of a crop shirt and a bustier, where the very short, puffed sleeves and several panels along the body are sheer fabric, while the 'structure' of it, the bra-like cups in the front and several of the structural seams are fully black. It shows a fair bit, but ultimately reveals less than any bathing suit would.

After they've helped her into those pieces (which they have), there's still one or two things missing. "Of course, we can keep those big old badass boots of yours. They're perfect. And the collar. Well." Here, Jean pauses, and bites her lip, before admitting. "I bought a new one for you."