[F] Out Of The Hidey Hole [Jin+Allison+Ivan]

[Ivan Braginsky]

Ivan had half a mind to remark on the selfishness implied by her statement, but he held his tongue. One, he figured she didn't know better. Two, he didn't want to talk if he didn't have to. Talking was... awkward. It was words and while he could do it passably, he knew that if he talked long enough he'd make a fool of himself. It was just inevitable. Allison would learn eventually. Hopefully Yong Soo could teach her, considering he knew the ways of "people" far better than Ivan did these days. After forcing himself into being a recluse, he kind of... neglected those skills.

His eyes widened for a moment as Jin was suddenly grabbed and drug along after Allison. Well, that was marginally unexpected. He blinked a bit, getting his bearings before walking quickly after them. He'd have run if he could, but that was no longer an option with his knees. He didn't call out "wait" or "hold on" or anything else as he practically shuffled after them in the snow.

After a minute or so, he caught up, putting a hand on Allison's shoulder just as Jin finished talking about... Arthur's cooking? Arthur's cooking was terrible. The usual smile melted into absolute blankness for a moment before he remembered... that... Jin's model couldn't taste food. Of course he wouldn't know the difference. Ivan sighed, smiling once more. Hopefully they could at least get this shopping thing over with soon.

[Allison Jones]

Soon enough, Allie slowed down, though she still held onto Jin’s arm gently. After all, if they got separated, they wouldn’t be able to go shopping together. As they walked, Allie listened to Jin talk about his owner and his cooking. Was he really as bad as people said he was? Jin didn’t seem to think so, so Allie wondered if she would ever be able to try Jin’s owner’s cooking. What if it really was good and everyone else just didn’t know any better?

Allie was about to ask if she could try the cooking when a hand landed on her shoulder. Glancing up, she stared at the blank face that Ivan wore and she shrunk back a little, wondering what he was thinking. Was he upset that she left him behind? Or was it what Jin had been talking about, since that was who Ivan was staring at. After a moment of awkward silence, Ivan smiled again and Allie decided that maybe he had just gotten lost in his thoughts once again.

“Mister Ivan, is everything alright? We can walk slower, if you want us to.”

[jin]

“He does that a lot, right?” Jin asked, pointing to her owner. He was curious as to why he was smiling so...oddly, but didn’t care enough to pry. “Just stare and stuff? Mine does too – maybe it’s just a human thing, you know?”

Of course, if Arthur had been the one staring off into space with no noticeable reason, his first thought would be to get the poor man a cup of tea and a physical. He was glad he was able to see how another human/bot team worked – it put a lot of things into perspective. Of course, he’d seen Yong Soo around Ivan plenty of times before, but that was different – the Korean was a special snowflake.

“So like, where are we going anyway? Somewhere quality I hope. No thrift stores or anything, right?”

[/blockquote]

[Ivan Braginsky]

Ivan felt a bit confused at first, but he really had to admit that despite her naivety, she was at least good at attempting to be attentive to his needs, even if she didn't quite know what the need was. This time though, she was spot on. Walking slower was... rather what he'd had in mind. He smiled a bit more broadly before nodding as he kept his hand on her shoulder. She'd understand, right? It was probably getting rather apparent that he wasn't in the best shape of his life, at least not his joints. The eye-patch probably gave it away that he'd seen better days... rather literally.

Raising an eyebrow the "staring" comment, Ivan quickly shook his head and lowered it again, trying not to take it personally. He knew he often stared into space, losing himself in thought... or nightmares... Besides, Jin was just a blunt individual, despite Arthur's disapproval of such behaviors towards most people. He was more or less used to it, right?

He straightened his back some, pulling his hand back from Allison's shoulder. Oh well, he'd caught up to them, Allison was aware that he was lagging behind and now they were off to one of the boutiques down the street. It wasn't far. The grocery store was only another few blocks away from there anyway. He could make that as long as they didn't linger for hours on end.

[/blockquote]

[Allison Jones]

Allie couldn’t help but smile brightly when Ivan finally changed his smile for her. She had gotten Ivan to smile! That was good! It was better than good and she had gotten what Ivan wanted correct. She and Jin had sort of darted off ahead without waiting for him, so she felt kind of bad. It had become pretty clear to her almost immediately after her activation that Ivan had a lot of “aches and pains,” as humans called them. It meant that he couldn’t play sports with her but as long as he was happy, then she would be happy too!

Stifling a giggle at Jin’s comment, because it was rude and she shouldn’t be rude, no matter how true a statement was, Allie linked her free arm with one of Ivan’s and smiled up at him. “This way we can all stay together,” she said and began leading Jin and Ivan to the dress boutique. It was just down the street and then they would go get Jin’s groceries before heading home. Hopefully Ivan’s knees would be alright… If not, maybe she could find something for pain at the grocery store.

[jin]

Jin blushed, fighting a pout. This was so horribly cheesy - like something from one of those fluffy animated movies about the power of friendship and family (whatever that was). But Jin noticed that the crowd seemed to part wherever Ivan went, and decided that it wasn't all that bad - they'd get to the boutique sooner, and he'd be able to get all the groceries on his list before dinnertime. He quietly followed Allison as she guided the limping battering ram through the streets, holding himself with the proper poise that a Kirkland bot should have.

"So what's the dress for? Like, what occasion? Is Mister Braginsky holding a charity event or something?"

[Ivan Braginsky]

Ivan felt color flash to his face the moment Allison looped his arm with hers. That was... something normally done when escorting dates, wasn't it? Other than that, his expression remained unaffected as the color faded quickly. He had to stay calm and not panic horribly like when he'd helped that nice Matthew fellow and taken him to lunch in the shopping center. That had been an embarrassing fiasco he'd rather not repeat, despite having rather been hoping he'd made a friend at the time. Oh well, maybe they'd meet again under better, less awkward circumstances. In the meantime though, here he was, arm in arm with his new bot that seemed to... really like him, for lack of a better way to put it.

Charity event? No, that wasn't something he did. It wasn't that he didn't want to help people, it was just that... he was... horrible at social things. A brief death of expression passed his face as Ivan found that he lacked a way of really explaining that. It vanished when he merely answered with an almost inaudible "Нет."

In truth, Allison had merely wanted a new dress and Ivan was manipulated into getting it for her. Honestly though, he didn't really mind considering it would put a smile on her face. That was always something, despite the fact that she smiled very often. He always liked seeing it and found that he had not yet grown tired of it. It had only been two weeks so far though, so... perhaps enough time just had not yet passed. Better not to think of that, he reasoned, as they finally arrived at the boutique.

[/blockquote]

[Allison Jones]

Allie looked between Jin and Ivan, wondering why both of them had turned slightly red in the face. Yes, it was cold outside but Jin was a bot and shouldn’t really be that affected by temperature changes. The color on both their faces faded quickly, so Allie decided not to say anything about it. After all, she could always ask Yong Soo later what that meant. He would definitely tell her!

Still walking slowly, she listened to the two of them, trying to think of a proper answer for Jin. There really was no reason for her to get a dress, except for the fact that she wanted one. It wasn’t like she was going to get a really fancy dress or anything. Just something pretty and warm that she could wear during the winter months. She would probably just end up wearing it around the house, because Ivan didn’t seem to go out much and Yong Soo was often busy with work and she didn’t leave the house without one of them.

When they arrived at the boutique, Allie pulled the two males inside with her, grinning brightly. There were so many pretty dresses here… “Mister Ivan, what color do you think I should get?”

[jin]

As soon as the trio had entered the small boutique, Jin slipped away and headed to the other side of the store, less interested in frilly dresses and more interested in something that didn’t make his hips look even more...shapely.

Arthur liked to dress him up in traditional Chinese textiles (some were obviously Korean, but he wouldn’t ever think of correcting the Englishman), though the bot honestly preferred more modern attire. Again, he would never voice that aloud, though it did make him feel a bit less 'eh' to be in a clothing store without having to suck up his fashion sense for another damn duangua.

Ooh, they had hoodies~ And they came in all his favourite colours too...red...and black...and...dark red. He bit his lip and reached into his pockets for a card, scanning it to find out how much money Arthur currently had in his bank account. It was a lot, like, a lot a lot...but that didn’t mean his owner wouldn’t notice if some of it went missing. Unless Jin lied and said the strawberries had been surprisingly expensive...aah, but he couldn’t lie to his owner...

Jin sighed and sat on the boutique floor, pulling his knees to his chest and waiting patiently as the other two finished looking for Allison’s dress. He’d never been shopping with a woman, bot or human, though rumours said they took a notoriously long time to pick out clothes.

[Ivan Braginsky]

At least he didn't feel too out of place in a clothing boutique with Allison here. She was more than enough excuse to be here that he didn't have to explain to everyone nearby, not like if he'd worn a pink tuxedo. He'd have to explain that, which would only get him even more weird stares. Yes, a woman was more than enough reason to stand around looking at dresses... Hopefully he wasn't going to be asked to imagine how she would look in them. He didn't want to be mistaken for a lecherous old man who needed a bot carnal purposes as opposed acquiring a human partner.

What color? Well... that was exactly what he hadn't wanted to think about. He'd really only wanted her to just pick something she liked so they could be off. But she'd asked so nicely, he couldn't just ignore her question, could he? Ivan stopped in his walk, putting his hand to his chin in thought before looking over at the racks of clothing nearby. They all looked so nice, but he couldn't lie. There were colors he did prefer. What if she didn't like those colors though? Would it have been fair to make her wear those? Then again, she was his property legally speaking. Conundrums every way he looked, it seemed.

"I really like ret... or purple," he whispered, still looking at the nearby dresses.

Ivan took a moment to look back over his shoulder, seeing Jin over by the hoodies, at least that's what he thought they were called. Did he... want one, he wondered. Taking a few slow steps over the young bot, he tapped his shoulder gently before gesturing at the hoodie. If he wanted it, Ivan wouldn't mind buying it for him provided Arthur wouldn't have a panic attack. Besides, it didn't seem exactly fair to him that Allison would be getting something new to wear but Jin wasn't even though he was there with them. "I can get for you?" he asked, keeping his voice low like always.

[Allison Jones]

Letting Jin wander around the store on his own, Allie looked over all the dresses, trying to decide which one she liked best. They were all so pretty and there were so many different styles… Maybe she would try on a few to find which one she liked the best. She would also have to make sure that Ivan liked the dress, because he was the one buying it for her, after all. He had to like it because she would be wearing it in his house.

When Ivan told her which colors he preferred, she smiled at him and started looking at dresses of that color. While she thought purple was nice, she really liked red. So, if she found a red dress she liked, she would ask Ivan to get that one for her. He would be happy too, since it was a color he liked! After all, she didn’t want to pick a color that Ivan hated!

As Ivan moved over to speak with Jin, Allie picked a couple red dresses and asked the saleswoman to show her to the dressing rooms. She had to make sure they fit properly. Ill-fitting clothing would reflect badly on her owner and she didn’t want that for Ivan! Eventually, Allie found a pretty and warm red sweater dress that fit her nicely. Stepping out of the dressing room, she looked around the boutique for Ivan, wanting to show him her dress.

“Mister Ivan, is this one pretty?”

[jin]

Jin started a bit before looking up, blinking blankly at Ivan as he held onto the sleeve of one of the hoodies he'd been looking at earlier. He was very tempted to accept the man's offer, but didn't know how his owner would react...and it was better to be safe than sorry, he supposed.

"No, it's okay, I don't really like the idea of owing you anything, much less being in your debt," Jin said, shaking his head. "...But thank you very much for asking, I guess."

He stood up and dusted himself before walking over to the women's section, wrinkling his nose at some of the available choices. Honestly, if something wasn't too revealing, it was far too conservative. So really, girls could only be total prudes, or total sluts - Jin wasn't sure which he preferred. None of them had hoods and none of them had pandas, so there really wasn't much that caught his interest. He stepped back a bit after Allison had come out of the dressing room, not wanting to get in the way of the consultation - whatever these people chose to wear was none of his business.

...They weren't expecting Jin to help with the shopping bags were they? He felt like that was the sort of thing girls liked to do...

[Ivan Braginsky]

Ivan felt a little let down that Jin was like this towards him. He didn't take it personally, but he'd only wanted to help. He shrugged, trying to remember that Jin was just stubborn like Arthur. With a sigh, inappropriately content sounding as was his way of things normally, he followed Jin back over to the women's clothing area where Allison had emerged from the dressing room in a dress she'd found.

Well, it was red, which certainly got his attention. It looked warm too so she'd be in good shape for temperature glitches in the biosphere. The older man put a hand to his chin as he tried to look at her without seeming like he was a creepy old pervert. He really wasn't. Well, he didn't know much about fashion, but it did look nice on her... if just basic "what pleases the eye" was the rule here. However... articulating that might have been a problem.

Ivan bit his lip before muttering, "Ты очень красивая..." Letting the smile return to fill the silence that followed, he tried to keep it from being too strong, not wanting to show quite how much he did like it. The penthouse would be much lovelier with her dressed like that in it.

(( Ты очень красивая... = You're very beautiful... ))

[Allison Jones]

Allie waited patiently for Ivan to walk over to her, though she was slightly curious about what he and Jin had been talking about. Jin had seemed to really like the hooded sweaters but he didn’t seem to be getting one. Maybe his owner did not want him to buy anything without him knowing. That seemed reasonable, after all.

When Ivan approached her, she turned her attention from the other bot to her owner, smiling a little bit. “I know you said you liked red, Mister Ivan, so I picked this dress,” she said, carefully smoothing out the skirt so it wouldn’t look wrinkled. Hopefully Ivan would like the dress, because she certainly did. It was warm and comfortable!

While Allie had been expecting Ivan to tell her that he liked or hated the dress, she had not been expecting the words that came out of his mouth. Not knowing how to process that, she stood there, staring at him in confusion before looking down at herself. Ivan thought this dress made her look beautiful? That’s what he had said, right? Her Russian language installation wasn’t glitching on her, was it?

“Are you talking about me, Mister Ivan…?”

[jin]

Jin looked from bot to owner, confused and totally in the dark as to what was going on. He only had English and Mandarin installed (because really, what was a Chinese bot that didn't know Chinese), so he had no idea what Ivan had said. From her reaction, he assumed it was either a compliment, or an insult.

"...Well, he's either talking about you or that woman over there," he said, pointing at an old lady with wrinkles so deep one could possibly plant potatoes in them. "...So."