St. Peter In Chains: The Collection. [OPEN!]

[meanwhileback]

Who: Penelope Lane, her models, her muses, her admirers, the curious and the critics. ANYONE. EVERYONE. GET IN HERE!!
What: Penelope's long-awaited runway show! Finally!
Where: St. Peter In Chains, abandoned cathedralish church.
When: Friday, June 29th! Eveningtime. Show starts at 7pm and goes... well. Until everyone isn't there anymore, I guess!! For whatever reason.
Notes: IMPORTANT: There's going to be a bunch of subthreads for different parts of the night. Feel free to tag around in them as you want! I'd like fabulous things to happen here, people. Fabulous. Things.
EDIT: NOW WITH ADDED TERROR!! SEE LINK BELOW!!
Warnings: Scary things, NPC death, injuries... horrors!!

The venue has been done up quite well for the occasion, all things considered. The old pews that were still salvageable have been repurposed and rearranged to face the aisle down the center of the enormous main room, where a raised runway has been set up. Lighting and temporary walls, and even an audio system have been brought in and installed for the occasion, and the impressive wreathed columns have been dramatically lit from below to emphasize the height of the room.

All told, it looks like it cost absolute scads of money to renovate an abandoned space to this level of elegance; whether this is actually true or not is largely immaterial. As with so much of society, it's the appearance of the thing that matters most, not the reality of it. Perhaps that's a statement Penelope Lane is making intentionally. Everyone knows the designer is one of the most outspoken members of her cohort, after all, and not one to misrepresent herself.

And she is, tonight, for one, brief, shining moment, entirely in control. Take plenty of pictures; it won't last long.

AND NOW: THE REAL SHOW BEGINS

Comments

[deservesadaisy]

"It does. And beyond that, I think a lot of people are looking for culture. The city has a lot by way of entertainment, but proper art is something else again." He shrugs, lithe. "And some people were almost certainly just curious."

[meanwhileback]

Penelope laughs, because Ivan actually called what she does art, and she's. Penelope.

"I don't know about anything I do being proper anything, but." She shrugs. "I don't mind people wanting to be In With The In Crowd, if that means I'm the In Crowd now. Fuck I'm going to be busy now, though."

She loves it.

[rhinemaid]

“Busy is better than not busy.” That's a little fervent of you, Ilde; work had dropped off for a while after the city siege, and she hadn't always realized before then what a valuable distraction it had been. So maybe she doesn't like her work very much-- there are worse things her mind could be tangled up in.

It must be even better again, she reasons, that Penelope's doing work she clearly loves.

[deservesadaisy]

"You certainly are," Ivan agrees. He has no opinion on work or business, because Ivan.

"And it will feed itself. The more you're sought after, the more it will be clear that you're worth seeking out." Even people who knew fuckall about couture would want to keep current with her as a status symbol.

[meanwhileback]

"Until my inevitable fall out of fashion," she says, casting an eye around the room. Fickle hearts, all of them. She doesn't care; she's got plans.

[rhinemaid]

“Well, you know; enjoy it while it lasts, planning for when it doesn't.” Which is what Ilde assumes Penelope is up to, if only because she's pretty sure her friend is too cynical to assume any success will be indefinite. It's not bad advice in most fields, she thinks, although there's only so far planning will take anyone.

(The apocalypse teaches you a lot of things. Few of them involve optimism.)

[deservesadaisy]

"You'll still have customers. I assume I will, at least, continue writing you checks indefinitely, as I've no reason to believe Ilde's tastes will flag."

He shrugs, then adds, "And the city could always be attacked by monsters again, so saving a nest egg is a good idea for everyone, hm?"

[meanwhileback]

"Oh sure. The next time disaster comes, I can always just throw my enormous piles of money at it until it shits itself and runs away."

Well, we've gone that long in conversation without her talking about shit. It's about time.

[rhinemaid]

“Extra money right after the crisis softens the fall,” Ilde says, noting it absently, that most recent crisis still not so very far from her mind. A moment later: “Provided you're alive.” Because nothing complements talking shit like a bit of coldly clinical pedantry and unnecessary point-making.

(They're nice girls.)

[deservesadaisy]

"Depending on the crisis," Ivan says idly, "you could buy your way into some protection, too. Money isn't everything, but it usually does help even so."