Now that Trina seemed to be doing well as far as Sui could tell. Of course, any normal person would see that was wrong. Trina was answering the questions, yes, but she was clearly fighting back tears, and would grimace occasionally as her thoughts wondered.

Sui only noticed she was no longer crying, and assumed the wincing was due to a particularly hard question. Sui wasn’t exactly paying attention to either of them anymore focusing on finishing up Trina’s new outfit instead. She only had to lengthen it a bit more and touch up the edges if they needed it.

Sui simply trusted that when Trina said she was fine, she was fine and had gone back to work, she was honest about that fact. Any inconsistencies with the statement were quickly deflected in Sui’s mind as she got to work. Ito sighed on Sui’s shoulder wishing she could roll her eyes at her partner’s antics, and kept an eye on her friends in her stead.

Once Sui got going it didn’t take her long to finish everything up. Another thirty minutes of work ensured that there were no loose ends, and that the construction would hold up even to more vigorous wear and tear. Sui had also gone to additional lengths when making her patterning to ensure that a cut in the fabric wouldn’t just cause everything to fall apart.

Now, Sui was looking over the spider silk Ito provided in contemplation. Hmmm. Sui’s technical expertise aside, artistic expression was not something she excelled at. Sure, she knew how to recognise beauty, and had an intuitive sense when it came to making sure that clothes were fashionable, honed by looking over countless styles, examining what people were wearing, and of course making them herself.

This allowed her to pick out the appropriate pieces that she had seen across time and copy them as part of her own work. Now however, she was considering something radical. Adding some fancier embroidered figures onto the edge of the dress. Hmmmmmmmm. Sui’s mind was turning over the problem in her head.

I know Trina would accept it as is, but normally I’d add at least something else… I’m aware enough to recognise that plain outfits are not normally considered fashionable of course but… I feel like maybe I should do MORE.

I mean, the excuse I used is, this is a replacement for the outfit I’m wearing now for her birthday… but… she was also worried over her parents earlier and… maybe I can do better? I could add stars I suppose? But I’ve done that for her pyjamas before… just doing that again isn’t really going the extra mile.

Sui continued to stew over her ideas for trying to make something more interesting out of Trina’s gift. While this was happening, Trina was leaning heavily into Aife, but was making her way through the questions presented. She was able to answer question after question without trouble, and was certainly abusing the distraction to avoid thinking about her parents.

Aife just kept gently running her hands through Trina’s hair, whilst giving confused glances towards Sui who was, by this point, just staring blankly at a ‘complete’ outfit for over ten minutes, at this point with a frown on her face. Aife was tempted to say something, but she didn’t want to interrupt Trina, and Ito had shaken her head softly.

Trina had also given Aife a soft shake of the head, which left Aife puzzling over what the pair of companions knew that she didn’t. Sui for her part wasn’t paying attention to any of this. She was weaving and discarding various designs in her head and found they were all coming out rather standard.

Nothing she did screamed MORE in the way she wanted. No no no, that’s all wrong as well. Thought Sui as she discarded a design including elaborately sewn flowers that extended up off the dress held together by tensioning the structure. Not only do I NOT actually know how to do something so complex it’s just needlessly garish. I’m trying to create a practical dress she can wear whenever she wants, hopefully into combat. Adding a bunch of over designed extras onto it will be tonnes of work for me, require experimentation, and then fail as a combat dress because of the extra areas something can grab on to.

And I mean, the flowers did seem nice in my mind, but it’s not like Trina was ever particularly enamoured with them. I mean sure, she’s excepted floral patterning on clothes I’ve made for her before, but I don’t think I’ve seen her ever go out of her way to acquire flowers. She had them in her house sometimes, but she didn’t bring any undue notice to them, or express pride in owning them…

Hmm, maybe that’s it… Pride? Is that the key to doing something like I wish? I need to make something that she feels proud to wear over other outfits, but still practical enough to wear all of the time… What is pride though?

Sui then started getting loss trying to figure out what exactly pride was. She had pride of course… but it was certainly not the same as Trina’s. Sui figured that one out rather quickly. The hard part was figuring out what would make Trina proud, or what pride was for her.

Sui was tempted to just ask Aife and if Trina wasn’t currently in the room Sui would have done just that, but she was in the room, and Sui had always been told that speaking about someone while they were in the room with you was considered rude.

And it’s not like I can ask Trina. This is supposed to be a surprise, so asking for her help would defeat the purpose. Sui of course, was ignoring the fact that she was working on said gift right next to Trina, and even had she noticed, wouldn’t have understood the issue either. The dress was clearly unfinished, so it would still be a surprise in her mind at least.

So what does Trina really like? Well, Aife is the obvious answer but I don’t really know enough about how that works… like what parts of Aife does she like? How would I translate that to a picture? Do I just make a repeating pattern consisting of Aife’s face?

Ito gave Sui a quick nip on the neck. Not hard enough to draw blood, but certainly enough to be noticeable. When Sui looked over to ask why, Ito gave a firm crossing of her legs as a response.

Ok ok, I won’t make it a picture of Aife’s face. I understand I understand. She didn’t really though, Sui thought it was perhaps the best idea she’d come up with yet. People always told her to be proud of her friends when they did something cool, and Aife was Trina’s girlfriend, so surely that meant she was proud of her. Granted Sui did know it wouldn’t look the best but she was trying something different.

Ok, so that’s out… what about books? Trina likes those… and she mentions the fact that she reads fairly often… does that mean she’s proud of them? How do I make that into something I can put on a dress though? It’s not like I can write them out… and I know Trina doesn’t like all books. Some are better then others… like… Something about A Wind’s Name? Or… and Old Guy Fearing something?

Eh, I can’t remember it didn’t seem important at the time. I was never going to read them, and Trina seemed like she just wanted to tell people about it. I didn’t think I’d need to listen…

Hmm, what about script? English isn’t a particularly good looking language though… I guess I could just do the alphabet or something but I feel like Trina wouldn’t be pleased with that… Though considering we are playing word games at the moment maybe that isn’t a bad idea? Have a memento of this day?

Ito decided to nip that idea in the bud as well. Rule number one of presents is to avoid reminding the recipient of something horrible like say… the time you realised you parents might be dead and you have no way of knowing. Sui just sighed and tried to think of more ideas for Trina’s outfit.

She cycled through all sorts of things, but it wasn’t until she glanced over at Trina that Sui’s mind started going in a workable direction. Hmm, animals… they are pretty cool… and maybe I can pick a proud bird or something? That’s how this works right? Trina might not be proud of it, but if she has a proud animal on her outfit surely it can’t hurt right?

Ito sighed at Sui’s line of thinking, but decided this was likely the best she’d be able to come up with on short notice and decided not to veto anymore ideas, fearing Sui might start delving into crazier thoughts if she was left to ponder much longer.