[PP:F4] Inside the Lion's Den (Ariel)

[Mayuri 0]

Mayuri could not contain her excitement. Eric was to return to her that evening, and Shay could not wait to see him. He had gone away some days prior on business of which he did not relay the details to Mai, nor did she pry. The young woman understood that even though Life had promised her not to go places without her, it was just too impossible for him to keep. He had more than double her levels and he could not level further without training in higher places, places that Mai could not possibly go, not as she was. So she did not bother to question him when he told her that he had errands to run, and she kept her end of the promise by not questing without him. In this small way, she felt that their promise was met and they were keeping their word to one another.

Since her love was coming home, Mai wanted to do something special that evening. Since she wasn’t much of cook, they usually ate dinner out at the local pub, but Mai wanted to do something more than that. She wanted a date, a real date. One where she got to dress all pretty and be girly and go somewhere really nice, preferably someplace with cake. But she didn’t have anything pretty, just her pink kimono and her starter clothes, neither of which would suit for a date night. She would just have to go shopping and find something. She had amassed quite a bit of col and had plenty materials so finding a pretty dress would be no problem. The only thing is she had no idea where to look. She looked down at her kimono and at the little lion insignia stitched on it and remembered the shop she got it from.

“I wonder if she’ll have anything…” Mai said aloud to herself as she decided to head for the Lion’s Den.

The Lion’s Den was along the forest side of Snowfrost Village which meant it was open to PKer’s and regular players alike. This should have concerned Mai at least a little, however, she felt that she was too low a level to be noticed by others to be concerned with her. She bounced through the snow leaving little footprints in the white powder behind her as she headed for the shop. With the entrance in sight, the young raven haired woman made for the stairs and hurried inside.

Mai opened the door to the shop, and the little bells tinkled indicating her arrival. She closed the door behind her as she brushed snowflakes from her hair and began to walk inside and check out what was for sale. Walking further into the shop she felt something brush against her legs causing the young woman to jump. Mai looked down and found that she was being rubbed up on by a rather big white cat. Correction, not cat… a lion. “OHHH!!!” Mai squealed rather unsure what to do about the shepard sized white lion nuzzling against her leg.

“Nice kitty….” Mai said as she gingerly reached down and patted the young lion upon its head.

“H-h-h-ello?” She called out hoping that the owner of said big kitty would come get it before it tried to eat her or something.

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

Today work at the shop was a rather calm day... and that wouldn't be a bad thing as she usually had a daily quota to fulfill as her part of a bargain. But now, after the events on the 15th floor, events which included the death of her business partner.... this particular blonde was rather in a not so good disposition. Her usual weekly supply of materials had been all of the sudden cut which didn't sit that well with her. But she won't go on a mad quest for revenge as she didn't knew the self and system entitled 'Berserker' that well having only conversed with him about the deal they struck and had been questing with him once. Gloating men weren't really her type as they tended to talk more about themselves than compliment or at least pay attention to the girl beside them. She had plans for an association, achieving the 'Master Tailor' rank in her profession she could easily leave the rest of the tailors without work if she once again open her shop to receive custom orders. Since she she made the deal with Ssendom, she had refused almost all custom orders except for vanity items in order to stimulate her potential clients to seek lower level Tailors instead of her. Of course she would occasionally make gear for a selected handful of people but she would charge them with exorbitant prices as well. She had gained a small fortune 'til this date that she would've liked to invest in a proper house instead of this one room shop. That and much more we're the thoughts that circled in her mind while her lion companion was sleeping near the fireplace, the blonde herself feeling a bit lethargic as the burning logs sung a magic lullaby with the accompaniment of Kimba's tranquil purring..

She wasn't that tired but she could feel her eyelids gaining weighting her entire head down, as she started to slowly close them she leaned towards the counter and placed her hands under her head as she rested her head on them. "I'll deal with all this later" she muttered as she inhaled a big amount of air then released it as a long sigh. On the other part of the room, Kimba suddenly raised from her latent state and looked at the door. In the next second the entrance bells softly chimed and announced the arrival of a girl that began looking around the shop. Stealing a glance in Ariel's direction, she noticed that the blonde was sleeping soundly like a fairytale princess, not even a sound came from her direction as her body slightly raised and lowered with each breath she drew. Kimba yawned and seeing as Ariel wasn't up for the job, the lioness decided to act as the shop clerk until her blonde companion would awake.

She left her claimed spot in front of the fire generating furniture piece and went to the raven haired girl. Despite her small frame she didn't notice Kimba closing in as she was busy window shopping. The lioness wanted to roar at her but decided against it as she would wake up the sleeping beauty just a couple meters of them. Instead she closed in more and rubbed against her leg, tingling the girl with her whiskers then using her head and body. It seems her action surprised the girl as she released a cute noise at contact with her white fur. After looking in Ariel's direction and confirming that she was still asleep, Kimba accepted the light patting nuzzling against her hand with her head. it's been a while since somebody other than Ariel had given her this kind of attention and Kimba would enjoy every moment of it as she started purring. When Mayuri called out, Kimba opened her mouth and tried to make a cat-specific hissing-like sound and lead Mayuri towards the counter where her companion was sleeping soundly.

[Mayuri 0]

The lion purred causing Shay to smile. “You’re very pretty…” she told the little lion as she rubbed the animal’s head and giggled. “You must be a familiar, huh?” The girl made conversation with the big cat not thinking much on how silly she must’ve looked. Mai was just the sort to make conversation with anyone and anything. She even talked to the plants in her shop as she watered them, a habit from the real world as oxygen didn’t matter much in the computerized world of SAO.

“I’ve always wanted a familiar.” She continued and scratched the cat’s ear.

The big kitty let out a sound and began to walk away, and Mai followed wondering where she was being lead. The answer was found quickly as Mai soon found a sleeping blond woman nuzzled into a rather comfy looking chair. She was a pretty lady, and she looked so peaceful with a serene smile that Shay was unsure as to whether or not to disturb her.

“I don’t want to wake her…” Mai said to the little lion cub. “I’ll come another time,” she said as she gave the cub a little wave.

AS she turned to go, the floor beneath her feet gave a loud creak causing Mai to cringe. She turned about wondering if the loud sound had awoken the slumbering beauty.

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

Somehow the blonde had find herself in a place she was all to familiar with, a small dojo place located inside a garden of a traditional japanese house. Her home back in the real world. A sense of nostalgia came through her as she thought she would never see this place and without consciously knowing it was a dream she entered the small dojo where she spent more than a decade of her life training under her father. She would see a tall blonde figure with his hair flowing freely below his shoulders, in front of her and reached out to call him: "Otou-sama!" unfortunately, the call went unanswered as darkness enveloped the scenery around her and she slowly opened her eyes as a natural bodily response toward the loud sound.
"otou-sama...." her lips once again moved to say those words but no sound accompanied the action. Her eyes spotted a girl petting and talking to Kimba,that then focused on her.

Gently rubbing her eyes with her left hand to cast away the drowsiness while with her right one she tried to cover a rather big(large?) unlady-like yawn. Partially recovering from her daydream and recognizing the place she was on she left a soft sigh in realization that the earlier image was just a memory from her mind. She directed her attention towards the raven haired girl and smiled: "Welcome back!" she said, recognizing more the shop logo that was placed on her kimono. She went into a decent vertical position and moved from behind the counter, closer to her while saying: "Sorry you had to saw me like that... things have been rather... tiresome lately. Tell me what can I help you with?"
Meanwhile Kimba was getting attached to Mai as she was one of the few that would give her this sort of attention and affection, thus her 'not so happy' mood lately. But now she was even purring at the gentle touch of the girl who talked to her in the same way Ariel did even if all she could give in response were growls, roars and minimum body language. When she said she will come later, the lioness went in front of her and tried to block the entrance, wanting to spend more time and be pampered by her.

 

[Mayuri 0]

Mai turned to find she had indeed awaken the sleeping woman. She crinkled her little face as she was terribly disappointed in herself for being so rude. The woman however did not seem the least bit annoyed by her actions and even politely greeted her with a welcoming return.“Thank you,” Mayuri smiled as she gave the woman a polite nod. “I’m sorry for waking you. You seemed like you needed the rest and I didn’t want to be a bother…” she responded as the blond told her of how tired she’d been lately. As they talked, Mai turned to look to see where the cat had gone. It seemed to have moved itself in front of the door as if telling Mai she was to stay where she was. Sighing and smiling Mai nodded as she resigned to do just that.

“…Tell me what can I help you with?" The woman inquired of her.

A rosy blush crept over Mai’s cheeks as she lowered her eyes.

“I was wondering if you might have any dresses in stock? Nothing very fancy… just something pretty that I could wear on a date…” As Mai spoke, the pinky tones upon her face only deepened until she was beet red all over.

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

The blonde's expression turned into one of surprise as her eyebrows slightly raised: "ooooh?" she let out a guttural sound that barely qualified as a one worded question. She smiled as the girl mentioned the reason why she came shopping to her little frozen paradise. 'It's been too long...' thought the blonde as she noded then replied: "Nonsense, I will make you look stunning for the date, he won't be able to keep his eyes off of you when we're done here! By the way, I'm not sure if we got properly introduced since clients come and go on a daily basis and I'm not that good with faces, so let me start fresh. I'm Ariel, owner of 'The Lion's Den'. Nice to meet you!" she couldn't contain her excitement and help but think how cute and innocent she seemed, blushing from just talking about her request. Nodding more to herself she went and got a mobile garment rack, it was currently empty but the blonde made a few swipes and presses onto the floating HUD panel in front of her and produced about a dozen of different styled clothing items, ranging from formal dresses to simple jeans and white T-shirt. She then would step aside with a clothing article that constituted of a one-piece dress, white in color with a discreet silver pattern that had the skirt length to just above the knees and no sleeves. "How about we start with this one?" you can change there if you like." she said as she pointed towards a japanese style red screen that will allow her some privacy while the two could still converse. Meanwhile as the lioness saw that Mayuri decided not to leave, she joined them and simply sat there swiveling her head from a one of the girls to the other as they conversed, yawning once in awhile.

[Mayuri 0]

Mayuri sighed softly as her request was met with enthusiasm. The pretty lady introduced herself and Shay nodded. “Very nice to make your acquaintance, Ariel. You may call me Mayuri… Mai for short, if you please.”  Ariel produced an empty rack that with a few clicks from within her control panel, filled up with an assortment of outfits. The blond began to sort through the garments and produced a rather lovely white dress for Shay to try on. She was pointed toward a changing area and she took up the dress and then walked back behind the screen to try on the lovely garb. Although the modesty settings were on in Mai’s, she appreciated being given the option of privacy to swap out her gear.

With a few clicks from her panel, Mai removed her pink kimono and tried on the white dress. She ran her fingers over the soft material and smiled softly as she fluffed the skirt feeling rather pretty. Shay wondered if Life would think she was pretty in white. Stepping back around from the privacy screen she looked at Ariel for opinion.

“It’s not too showy is it? I don’t think he likes girls seemed to be rather traditional in demeanor and she saw him as the sort to  try to cover her up if she were showing too much skin in public