The Fools of Amphidor

Marceal the Conversationalist

"Hello?" A seal woman stood at the door, holding what seemed to be a sewing box.

I sighed with relief and let her in. For some reason, I think we both thought the same thing. That it might have been Octavius, coming to kill us like he'd done to poor Graham.

She smiled a little, "My name's Marceal, but you can call me Marcy! I'm happy to be your tailor for this evening!"

It took me way longer than it should have to realize her name was a pun.

"So what are we looking for, tonight?" She asked.

"Octavius just said that it was black tie. He didn't say anything about a color scheme, so a suit and tie will do," I shrugged.

Claire quickly ran to the bathroom before Marceal could ask her about what she wanted to wear. I cursed under my breath.

Marcy cocked an eyebrow and looked up at me, "What's her deal?"

"Uhh... Food poisoning," I lied quickly.

"Oh. I see. Sometimes the shrimps get to me, too," She laughed.

Oh god... Awkward small-talk. My worst enemy.

"Oh... Haha... Yeah..." I nodded a little, not wanting to be rude.

"I mean, they just have so many out on the table and I'm so hungry all the time and--" For the sake of your poor eyes, dear reader, I'm not going to make you read this whole conversation. Just know that she continued to talk about shrimp until she finished fitting me and I responded with a series of nervous laughter and 'wow, that's crazy'.

By the time she was finished, I was almost ready to collapse.

"...And that's why I'm not invited on the boat anymore!" she laughed.

"Yeah... Haha. Wow," I murmured half-heartedly. I'd discovered that it didn't really matter what I said as long as I said something in response. She'd just keep talking anyway.

"This was great! Call me if your friend gets done throwing up! I'll have your suit ready by tonight, mister!" She took her pin box and walked out.

I sighed with relief and looked toward the bathroom door, "You can come out, jerk. She's gone."

After a moment of silence, she walked out holding one of those garment bag things, "I snuck out of the window and just rented one from the store across the street."

"I hate you," I rolled my eyes, "She had to take like 3 measurements and then complained about shrimp for the rest of the time..."

"I caught the beginning and end of the conversation. You wanna see what I borrowed?" She asked.

"Yeah, whatever," I huffed, "Show me."

She unzipped the bag to show me an a-line, floor-length dress. The bodice of the dress was covered in sequins that were patterned like little swirls protruding from where the skirt met its bottom edge. The skirt was sleek and smooth-looking. It was classy. There were no frills. It was just a simple, nice dress. To be honest, I liked it, but I was mad at her, so I wasn't going to say that.

"I figured it would probably be blue or green themed," She shrugged.

"I hope it's red themed," I grumbled.

Although Marceal had annoyed me, she did come through on her promise to get the suit to me by later that night. To Claire's delight, the gala was, in fact, teal themed. I got a simple black suit with a teal pocket square. I assumed that Max and Alfie probably did, too.

Claire had wandered into the bathroom again to put on her dress. I decided I didn't want to wait on her, so I just put mine on in the room itself. As I stripped down to my underwear, Octavius barged in without knocking.

"Ah! My apologies!" Octavius laughed.

"hOW DID YOU EVEN GET IN HERE?!" I yelped, covering myself with a blanket quickly.

"I have the key to your room, my boy!" Octavius showed me his key card, "I apologize! I should have knocked!"

"Yeah, that would have been nice!" I was not very happy.

"What did Marceal whip up for you?" He asked.

"If you give me a second to puT IT oN, then you'll see!" I hissed.

"Alright, alright! No need to get snippy, my boy," Octavius huffed and walked out for a moment, giving me the chance to put on my suit.

Claire could be heard cracking up in the bathroom.

"It's not funny!" I snipped.

"It's VERY funny," She laughed.

I grumbled under my breath while I pulled the suit on. They'd also supplied me with some dress shoes, which Claire didn't have. Though, her dress would cover her feet, so it didn't matter.

She came out of the bathroom, "He'll probably want to see me, too."

"Yeah, we're in this together," I rolled my eyes.

She looked absolutely beautiful. Her hair was almost down. I'd never seen her hair down before. It was shorter than I'd expected, but that was probably because of the curls. She'd pinned back a small segment of it, creating a mini ponytail in the back. When she pulled up the bottom of the dress, though, her work boots were right underneath. I chuckled a little at that.

"You think I look alright?" She asked.

"I think you look great," I smiled.

Octavius walked back in and examined the two of us.

"Hmm... This will work nicely," he concluded, "You two will look great! She did a wonderful job!"

Neither of us were going to tell him that Marceal did not make Claire's dress.

"I'm off to see what your friends got! They had a different tailor, you know. I hope you match," He laughed and walked out of the room without another word.

Claire shuddered, "He creeps me out..."

I nodded in agreement.