it'll be fun, she said [terebellum]

California has been miserable to say the least. Terebellum was in a constant bad mood thanks to everything that was the Los Angeles environment. So you can clearly imagine his surprise and excitement when the boss’ daughter Elaine came up to him and told him that she knew where there was snow. Where there was snow there were freezing temperatures and the opportunity to go snowboarding. And like the naïve child that he was, he followed her without a second thought.

They left directly from headquarters though so there was no chance for him to stop and pick up his snowboarding equipment not that it made much of a difference now. Instead blissfully rolling around in frozen water like he had envisioned, he was now following the smiling brunette through a large building that contained a multitude of shops. She walked in front of him stopping every so often to enter one the stores while he waited patiently somewhere nearby. Then she would come back to him, hand him another bag, and they would continue and repeat. At the very least they were somewhere air conditioned. That much was better than nothing.

Still, there was obviously something quite wrong about this picture but there wasn’t much he could do about it now. He could stop and leave but how would he get back? He didn’t know the area and it wouldn’t so him any good to get lost again. And the idea of snow - precious, precious snow - was more than enough to make him patiently follow Elaine around until then.

But even he had his limits.

Terebellum quickened his pace a bit so that he could catch up to Elaine. He shifted a bit to adjust his grip on the bags before asking once again, ”How long before we can go snowboarding?”

Terebellum nodded at Elaine's words. It was true that she was doing him a favor. She was doing him a really big favor, if he thought about it. It would help him deal with the sudden transfer that much better. He was young, they told him. It shouldn't be too hard to adapt. Terebellum thought that they were all being pretentious. They assumed that he would be able to deal with such a sudden relocation after living and training his entire life in a much, much cooler climate and they were completely wrong. They could have sent him somewhere cooler first to help him acclimate but no, it was -5C to 25C or nothing it seemed. (The Impedio Society could care less about his adaptability but Terebellum cursed his life nonetheless. Teenagers, y'know?)

But a promise was a promise and Terebellum trusted Elaine to keep hers. In return for the location full of ice and cold, Terebellum was willing to carry as many bags as necessary. He could practically feel the freezing wind chill already.

Elaine finished by giving her a look that he could not truly decipher so he decided to ignore it. Terebellum gestured as best he could to the bags in hand. "May I ask what all of this is for?"

The reply that Elaine gave him was less than satisfactory. It only confused him further. Why buy things if there was no use for them? It seemed rather wasteful. In Grise Fiord, due to the limited supplies and harsh living conditions everything needed to be used and used well so as not to waste. Terebellum could remember his first few years there. His grandparents may have spoiled him to some degree but Ila never did. If anything, he had to buy things for Ila sometimes since Ila spent most of his money on their living expenses. Then again she did say the she liked shopping. Perhaps it was in the same way that he liked snowboarding. He never could have imagined going without snow in his life. Now that he was in Los Angeles, that nightmare was a reality. He did not wish that kind of torture upon anyone so it was probably best to let her shop.

"It's no problem," Terebellum replied after taking yet another bag from her. (Was there anyway he could get a box or a sled or something? It would certainly make it easier to carry all of this.) At least what she was buying wasn't heavy and he could manage this much at least.

'By the way, what does that mean? The word 'fashionable', I mean."

"Well no. Not really." Terebellum shrugged casually as best he could while weighed down with all the bags. Living in Grise Fiord meant that comfort and survival ranked much higher on the list of priorities than fashion ever would. The primary type of clothing worn in the little town were whatever sweaters they could import up to the north or homemade fur clothing. Warm, comfortable, efficient; whether or not it was fashionable was debatable. "Rather, I can make an educated guess as to what the word means but for the most part I don't really understand."

"Okay?" Terebellum blinked once, twice at the insult that never really clearly registered. His looks had never bothered him before and probably wasn't going to bother him any time soon either. He allowed himself to be dragged to another store that Elaine had called a salon and was forced into the next available seat. The bags that he had been carrying were stowed at the waiting area.

"Elaine..." he said uncertainly. "What's going on? What are we doing?" He was so confused.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Did she just say that she was going to make him 'pretty'? Pretty was for scenery. Pretty was for women. Men were supposed to be strong and handsome and they were supposed to worry more about getting work done than being pretty. Why would she make him pretty of all things?

The chair that he was sitting in was squishy and cold to the touch. Although Terebellum appreciated the cool seat he was not so sure he appreciated the look that Elaine was giving him. There was something a bit worrisome about the way she was acting and he was beginning to think that he was going to figure out a way to leave.

"Snowboarding?" Terebellum didn't know this himself but he could potentially be an addict. An addiction to snowboarding is probably something laughable but he has snowboarded constantly for a majority of his life. Cutting him off from his sport was completely cruel and unusual. So with the promise of snow and snowboarding, Terebellum sat back obediently and looked up at Elaine. "As I long as I can go snowboarding it doesn't matter if I am fashionable or not."

And so the poor child sat obediently as the woman moved around him, fussing with his hair and trimming at it this way and that. So apparently this so called "makeover" was really just a haircut. Terebellum could deal with that. It probably was about time for him to get it shortened anyway. Although he had to wonder why Elaine couldn't just call it a haircut. Or why it was necessary to get a haircut at some place so unnecessarily bright and garish. They could have just stayed at home if she really thought that his hair needed cutting.

By the time his hair was done, Terebellum was honestly getting really impatient and wanted to get up and move. It was quite boring just sitting there. The only entertainment there was had been to listen to the women beside him chatter on about some gossip regarding their lives that he did not care about in the least. And were the different gels and liquids that they had mixed into his hair really necessary?

No matter. The whole experience was over and he walked over to where Elaine was waiting. "That was an experience," he mumbled. "I'm not quite so sure I want to be fashionable."

Friends. Now there was an idea. He had not really thought about it, if he were to be completely honest with himself. This entire time he has been in Los Angeles all he has really done is complain about the heat and search desperately for snow at every possible opportunity. He hadn't even given thought to the people that now surrounded him and the new relationships he was slowly forming.

Terebellum offered her a small smile and reached over to grab the bags as promised. "Yes, of course. We're friends."

Although he doubted that her father would physically kill her, it sounded like it was probably best that they get back. "Does this mean that we won't be snowboarding today? Right... Well we should go back to headquarters then."

Just a little more. It was one more step towards his goal at least. At least he had found someone that knew where he could find some snow. He would have to ask about it at a later date, he supposed.