Sona Nyl: 1907 - Nice Clothes

~1902, a certain month in Connecticut~

---A private high school in Connecticut.

Young Elysia Wentworth hadn't first noticed the proud look on Vivi's face as she spreads out a file containing several magazines and newspaper clippings on her desk in the classroom. She tilted her head, wondering what exactly she was doing with her movements even matching that with Celvin, who was just as oblivious to her intentions with his head tilted. One, two, three question marks were above their heads.

"Uh, Vivi? What is this?"

"You didn't hear from me again, Elysia...Well, that's fine. Yes, this is a collection of articles and photos of my current favorite actresses. I would have shown you this before if you had asked me about it."

"Ooh. These are beautiful women. As expected of them being actresses," Celvin said with a tilt of his head.

"I guess you brought them to the classroom because you wanted her to see it too?"

"Huh?" "Well, kinda." "That's what I said." "E, eh?"

"Anyway, this is a photo of an actress. She's been appearing in cinema's lately. She's also a popular singer and one of the most popular there is."

"What's her name?" Eylsia asked, her head still tilted.

"Ginger Rogers. I told you about her before."

"U, uhm..."

She wonders if that was really the case, but upon being told that, she had a faint recollection of that story being told and asking to see the seal-engraved photo. As she thought about it, Elysia looked at many of the photos spread out on her desk.

She was a beautiful woman who surely was that of an actress. It seemed as though she had traveled freely to different countries and era's, wearing different outfits in each photo that ranged from a European noblewoman's dress, a town girl in the US, and there were even an endless array of Oriental clothing reminiscent of ancient Egypt. She couldn't tell whether they were movie costumes or stage costumes worn by actresses and singers, but they had one thing in common: They were beautiful. Even by just looking at them, she couldn't help sigh at them.

"Whoa, they're beautiful," A small sigh came out.

"I know, right? Lately, it seems like the range of her roles she's playing has expanded as an actress. She's also been singing more and more, even getting a reputation as the East Coast's best star."

"Oooh? That's amazing."

Celvin picked up some of the photos and nodded.

And, suddenly, his movements stopped. As soon as he got to the third photo, his stopped dead in his tracks. Of course, Elysia didn't notice the beads of sweat rolling down on his neck, but Vivi naturally noticed it. 

"What is it?"

"N-No, it's nothing."

"Let me see," She snatches it from his hand. "Ah...yeah, I can see why. T-this is...uhm...uh, yes. That's right."

Vivi's cheeks went red.

What just happened?

"Something wrong, Vivi?"

"U-uhm, it's nothing."

"Hehe. You're talking the same way as Celvin."

While saying this, Elysia turned next to Vivi and see's the photo. It was a newspaper clipping that was naturally in black and white but the shading was exquisite, reflecting off of Elysia's yellow eye with a 3D effect. It was Ginger Rogers in a dress. Despite the dress made of countless coins being avant-garde, it was something Elysia thought was beautiful. She was certain that each coin was beautifully reflected when exposed to the lighting and stage equipment.

"It's beautiful."

"Eh?"

"Eh?"

"That coin dress is so beautiful. It's amazing." 

 "It's amazing," Though Vivi's expression was distorted. "But it just seems a little bold or weird even. That, or one of the patrons had no sense of style and thought it was okay because of how sparkly it is in forcing her to wear that, or something of the sort."

"Wow. It's just so beautiful."

She blinks a few times.

Vivi wondered what she was going on about. Celvin's eyes even blacked out as he blushed red. It wasn't that off-putting. No. Surely she would shine more beautifully under the light, yes?

"Besides, aren't they a little exposed?"

"Uh, yeah. I'm happy for them to get a lot of exposure, but this one seems a bit off. After all, it's starting to even look like scale mail."

"Scale mail?"

"It's like their belly is a flower or the sun even."

"I think it looks wonderful."

"Ellie, you..."

Vivi sighs.

At this rate, she'll likely say the same thing to the man she's in love with. It's okay to say something about it, but it was really bad for this shameless, bizarre coin dress to be the center of attention. Vivi had guessed that it must have been such an eccentric person, but that was simply it. It was just that. It was just hard for a woman to say that it's a bold, or rather weird dress to say it was beautiful.

"...Don't tell me you'd wear that for your professor."

"It's lovely."

"Hey."

"Eh..." She felt disheartened.

"Don't make that face. Besides, Ellie, what do you think of this stylish dress? I'm sure there's no problem showing it off to Professor Alan." 

"Ah, this one's also nice."

"Everything is wonderful to you," Celvin laughs.

"That's not true."

Elysia puffed out her cheeks.

She didn't think anything she finds is wonderful, she just didn't find a lot she didn't like. The one she did find that she liked the most was---

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~1907, a certain month. Underground Broadway~

---This was before the girl reached the end of the Purple World.

---This was before the golden gun appeared in the world.

Underground World, Manhattan. Broadway.

Inside a dilapidated theater.

The men exchanged words with one another without looking at each other.

There was no woman there, as Ginger said she'd show Lily around and left the theater with her. So here we are, with only the men on the stage with the lights off: Sam Shorter, and the tall conductor of the sole subway car. The woman weren't there. That's why the men exchanged words.

Without so much as exchanging glances.

"You're too much."

A voice. The words echo from the stage to the audience, even if it was a small sound.

"You are a very possessive man. That, you are."

"I have no desires."

The conductor, A, responds without question to Sam's taunt.

It was a word spoken without hesitation.

"Hmm?"

"Unfortunately, I'm different from you guys."

"What difference is that?"

"From all of you."

He simply spoke the truth.

The conductor never lies.

However, it was just as likely for them to conceal the truth. And that was only for the girl with the hair and clothes. He never lies or hides anything from the lifeless metal people of the Underground World. It was simply supposed to as such.

"Then you aren't Human? I see. That could be true for you. However, that could be the same for us. Those writhing in iron in the forgotten purple underground world."

"It is."

That was true.

The conductor was not Human. Sam also wasn't properly a Human either.

This fact was determined by the master of the underground world.

A law established by the sneering god king.

"That's right. So what do you suppose we are, Mister black-head conductor?"

"You are of iron, surely. I am merely a scar in an operator's formula."

"That's not quite."

Sam spat out.

His fingers touched the dark piano, where a high-pitched sound resonates from it.

The decaying theater still bore the scars of the countless "cuts" that struck the Broadway Theater five years ago. Although the damage was relatively less severe than the other large theaters, it still bore "severing" scars on some of the seats. Thus, the sound that resonated couldn't said to be a lovely one.

It was just a high-pitched noise.

"We are all the same. We can be jealous. We can be even feel the desire to be possessive. Anyone that approaches a woman they are in love with is an enemy, regardless of who they are. Even if I were to die, become iron, or turn into a series of numbers, that one thing won't change," He goes on some more. "That will never change even if I head to purgatory."

Sam responds to the conductor who didn't seem to understand what he was saying.

As if he was mocking both him and themselves.

"...We are men. Those are kids. There's simply nothing we can do about that."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~1907, a certain month. Underground Broadway~

"Whoooaaa! There's so many clothes!"

"They're not comparable to the ones in the other theaters, sorry. Many of the large ones have fallen into disrepair."

"It's a lot better than the subway's closet!"

"Subway? It has a closet?"

Around the same time he and Sam were talking.

Inside the theater. Ginger Roger's dressing room.

Lily the Stranger stared at them with shining eyes. There were several large closets and countless stage costumes hung tightly there. In reality, they were less tightly packed together and moreso packed with proper ventilation in mind. But from Lily's perspective, there was just so many of them for her to even express it as such.

Wah, Lily froze with her mouth hung open.

There was just clothes, clothes, clothes!

There were a lot of clothes hanging in the sole subway car, but none compared to the clothing here. Also, was it alright to just call them clothes? Dresses? There were some gorgeous looking ones, ones she's never seen before, and others that made her think of them as from an unknown country or era. But she couldn't figure on where they would be worn or for what purpose. There many, many of them like it.

"Amazing..."

"This isn't really all of it. But it's something."

Ginger smiles a little shyly.

Lily couldn't think of any reason as to why. Perhaps that was it. Although she was an amateur and Lily had countless costumes and a large magical-looking shelf, she was a little different from Ginger. A considerable amount of the clothes have been lost since that "severance" phenomena occurred in Broadway five years ago, and right after that when the costumes "fell" to the underground world from the surface, the theater was in shambles to begin with. Although she had used this theater a few times before, she had performed at much larger ones five years ago so it was no exaggeration that this was essentially their own theater, and thus they had went to stock up on clothing from previous plays and movies. Here, these were just a few of the things to take away from. In that sense, she felt sad about her self-esteem when this was everything that she could show.

But Lily did not know that.

Thus, she expressed her thoughts with honesty.

Thus, she lets her eyes shine honestly.

"Amazing..."

 Lily whispered with a sigh.

What could she say to Ginger?

No, it wasn't to her. She was merely wondering what she should think and feel before so many of these beautiful clothes.

Even if she were to change everyday, she wasn't sure how many days it would to go through all of them if she had them. She pictured herself under the conductor's care everytime she changed into different clothes everyday, where an unwell feeling started to swell in her stomach but she didn't care. She didn't want to worry about that.

Lily didn't notice the sense of "anger" drifting in this town.

Now wasn't the time to confront it.

"Uhm..."

Regaining her composure, Lily reaches out and takes hold of one of the costumes. It was one that she had been curious on for some time the moment Ginger told her to try on something if she likes it. Good. The costume was heavier than she thought, and she had to unnaturally raise her heels to stretch out only to nearly fall over.

She was gently held in Ginger's arms.

It smelled nice.

The gentle scent of perfume.

"Thank you."

"No, you're welcome."

Ginger's smile---

There was something about it in that expression, even for just a moment.

But Lily didn't catch it.

"Uhm, about this. I was curious at how beautiful and cute this is."

"R-right, that..."

They appeared to be a number of gold coins stacked atop one another, made just in that way for the dress. In fact, wearing that made her feel very exposed. But Lily didn't realize it as she held it in her hands, making the light shine more in her eyes than it did the cluster of coins with such a sparkling and bright face.

"Wow, this looks so cute!"

"It is..."

"Hey, Ginger. What did this look like when you wore this?"

"Eh---"

Despite a slight hesitation---

Quietly and elegantly, Ginger gently sighs seeing just how much fun and cute Lily was.

She began to talk about it---

~   ~   ~

It was...

That's right...

I didn't want to really remember it, but...

Yes, sure. It was cute, I suppose.

Yes. Surely. If they say it was cute, it was.

If "that person" said it was, and so have you, then I suppose it is cute.

How many years ago has it been?

Sorry. I haven't been healed properly since.

But I understand.

It was before the town became what it is.

It must have been soon after that person joined us at the theater as a performer and started talking with me about various things. 

Of course, I also thought of him as a gentleman who had some reasonable sense. Yes, he was. He may have looked like a nonsense type of person, but he was someone who was smart enough to keep things on the down low.

So whenever he talked with me, it was usually decent things.

Never was it about the contents of the program or the songs.

He'd give me his honest opinions about the theater's management and the record sales. Eh. He'd usually say some odd things when it comes to patrons and sponsors. But he was different from those people. He was neat and tidy.

Yes. Indeed.

He was my favorite person.

An amazing person.

Then...

Then...

One day, he strangely began to bring some costumes with him.

"This suits you. No. It only suits you."

That was it.

I was shocked. Never have I heard anyone say such a thing. When I asked him about it, he said he even asked a famous European clothing designer to do it. He did so without telling it to anyone else in the theater, yes. I had wondered if it was a costume for a play. Or maybe a costume that came with it as a package for a new song. Sorry. I don't remember.

He wasn't the kind of person who would do something like this, so I was very surprised as was the others. But then we thought since he said something like that, it had to be wonderful and I was too.

Then...

It was this...

Half-naked...coin-dress...

I don't remember what face I made at the time when I said "thank you" to them...yes, I was happy...

But...

What was this, I wondered...

Yes...

That's...

Come to think of it, who was that person, I wonder...hmm...Sam...hmm, is it really good?

~    ~   ~

Her words had slurred at the end of that story.

Ginger's expression slightly darkned, and she wondered if Lily noticed it or if she even realized it.

However, she simply nodded and thought of the wonderful memory.

Just as her eyes shined---

"Yes. As expected, it's wonderful!"

(To be continued)