The sound of the bell ringing as the door opened was lost upon Lydia as she and Carley conversed. There were no other customers in the store or anything, so why work? Slow times indeed.

"...and he sent me these chocolates in the shape of fish! They were really cute too and in this little-"

"Wait..." Lydia shook her head, confused. "Why did he send you chocolates in the shape of fish?" Brows lifted curiously to the little blonde elf.

"Because of the fish at the docks and me getting slapped by one!" Carley rolled her eyes as if this was the obvious answer. "Keep up Fire!" She swatted once at the feather bouncing in front of her face, attached to the beret on her head. "Anyways it was in this box, which was really pretty with blue foil because I'm guessing Heath knows I really like blue. I don't know how he'd know though since I haven't actually told him that."

"You wear a lot of blue." Lydia interjected helpfully. "I mean.. don't we usually wear the colors we favor? It's pretty easy to guess someone's favorite colors by what they wear."

"Oh!" Carley grinned and nodnodded, sending feather a bouncin'. "I guess you're right! You're always wearing... red or yellow, right? So those are your favorite colors?"

Pale blues blinked once to the smaller elf. "No Carley... I don't wear much red or not even that much yellow." Lydia reached up, taking some blue fabric from her dress between thumb and forefinger. "Cool colors. Blues and violets and..." The green haired elf trailed off, having noticed that Carley wasn't even looking at her anymore, or paying attention. Instead, she was looking towards the racks. "...you're not listening to me anymore are you?"

"Huh?" Carley's bright blues snapped back to Lydia. "Oh, no no, we got a customer!" She extended a hand, pointing directly towards Charna.

Canting her head, Lydia followed the point, then smiled to the black haired lady. "Oh, hey Charna. Sorry I didn't hear you come in. Without Erin and Ivy here I guess things just fall apart?" There was a hint of sadness to her voice when she spoke that. She really did miss Ivy. Having some sanity around the store was missed, and let's face it, the trio currently gathered wasn't exactly the pinnacle of sanity.

Carley glanced between the two. "Wait.. Charna? Isn't that-"

An elbow into the side quickly cut the tactless elf off. "Hey Carley.. could you run down into the basement-" And not come back? "-and pull up the samples of silks we carry?" Lydia forced a grin to the little elf, nodding almost imperceptibly.

Looking faintly confused, Carley blinked, then bright blues widened a little, almost in understanding. "Oh.. oh! Sure thing Fire!" And just like that, she grinned all big, then waved to Charna before spinning on a heel and went launching towards the door behind the counter.

The green haired elf sighed, mostly of relief, before looking back towards Charna, features apologetic. "Sorry about that... things really do fall apart when it's just us working here." Erin was the one with social skills, not her or Carley. "I'm assuming you're here to discuss your wedding dress?"

Lydia perhaps caught the speech pattern, but didn't think too much of it, considering that Charna was doing much better than last time she saw her. She waited for the sound of a door closing behind her to continue, and for a brief moment, considered sliding a chair under the handle to lock the little blonde down there, but that wouldn't have been a nice thing to do.

...'Nice' is so overrated sometimes.

"Oh, well, of course." Lydia nodded a little bit, wondering if all the awkwardness was just hers or shared. There really was no good reason to feel it was there? It had been months and months ago since Charna and Grem were together and most of this was just her own stupid insecurities wasn't it?

Shaking her head faintly, Lydia pushed away her thoughts, then hooked some green locks behind pointed ears. Small talk never failed did it? "You look a lot better... I'm glad to see you're feeling better than before." An amiable smile was offered along with her words. Gaze drifted towards the window a moment, brows lifting faintly at the pegasus outside.

"Is that one of yours? I hear your stable is doing really well at the pegasi racing." Pale blues regarded Charna as she clasped hands behind her back, trying so so hard not to be awkward, and trying so so hard to converse with her like she was anyone else.

She had no intention of prying further into the conversation that had been dismissed, and instead focused on the new conversation, letting pale blues drift back towards the window towards Lord of None.

"Interesting name." One she considered applied to most, if not all, in Rhydin. No matter how much they harped on about their 'royal blood'. "He's pretty." From a distance of course. Pegasi equated to horses in her mind, and she was terrified of both.

"I don't know much about the Pegasus racing, honestly..." Hands unclasped and settled on the glass counter in front of her, lightly tapping away. "Nimble Thimble is Piper's and is.. I guess he advertises for us? Wearing the Stitch's colors and all." She snorted faintly. "He's doing really good, earned Piper a lot of money. Almost feel bad I didn't actually bet on him, but I was never much for gambling."

She was a little more at ease, but not completely. The rambling probably gave that away. Or perhaps not. Charna might just think she always rambles, given that they didn't know each other terribly well.

The thought of her and Erin doing all the work by themselves though made her laugh a little. "Oh, no no, we had quite a bit of help from our friends doing all of this." One hand lifted to gesture around the place. "If it were just me and Erin I'm sure we'd be trapped under a mannequin in some alley..." She shook her head at the thought, sending a few wisps of green in her face. Moments like that had her reconsidering growing her hair all out again. "I can't remember how long it took actually... I'm terrible with keeping track of time." Head canted as she straightened a little bit, pondering. "Probably.. about a month? Give or take."

The thoughts of actually riding or racing one of those creatures terrified her, perhaps that showed on her face, for just a moment. Now she could see why Erin wouldn't ride Thimble at the races. "I don't think I could ever bring myself to ride a pegasus. Guess I have something of a fear of horses..." Sheepish almost as she spoke it, but didn't everyone have their fears, silly or not? She had seen grown men freak at the sight of a mere little spider, so a little thing like her being scared of horses and pegasi (among other things)? Not nearly as strange in comparison.

Head tilted to the side at the comment about Nimble Thimble, before she smiled faintly, shrugging. "That, or I just don't do well at advertising."

Fingertips tapped against the glass casing one more time before sliding off, brushing celadon locks from her face. Of all the times for her hair to be impossible... There was a somewhat curious glint to her eyes at Charna's compliment, and a smile touched her lips. "Thanks.. though I don't make everything in here." Gaze wandered past the vixen towards the racks assembled. Ninety five percent of what was gathered there was women's clothing. Skirts and blouses and dresses. Though there was the occasional article of clothing for a man in there. It just wasn't her specialty.

"Erin's the one who knits everything." Lydia gestured to the shelves on the walls then, housing scarves and even knitted bikinis. Knitting was never the green haired elf's strong suit. Not when she'd knit a pair of gloves and one came out twice as big as the other. "She makes jewelry here too. Calls it 'costume jewelry' for some reason. I guess since it's mostly beads, crystals.. things like that."

Gaze dropped to the gathered jewelry in the glass case a moment before a door opening behind her had her glancing over her shoulder. Carley, the ever bouncy one, had returned with a rather large scrapbook looking thing. Large indeed, the thing had to weigh about fifteen pounds at least. Lydia winced when Carley unceremoniously dropped it on the counter (not the glass part thank the gods) with a loud 'thud!'. A faint smile and mutter of half-hearted thanks was offered to the blonde one before pale blues shifted apologetically to Charna.

So much for that one-on-one time...

Carley grinned at Lydia before turning towards Charna, lots and lots of questions brimming in bright blue eyes. Just on the tip of her tongue too, all about to escape... which is probably why the green haired elf was quick to speak up. Couldn't have any awkward questions get thrown around, no no. "So ah.. Carley? Didn't you have that project you were working on upstairs?"

Rolling on the balls of her feet, the little blonde elf shot a quizzical look to Lydia. "What project?" She could be such a dense little thing...

She would have face palmed if she didn't think it would make things so obvious... swallowing, Lydia offered an amiable smile to her little blonde friend. "You know.. that knitting.. thing you were working on." A somewhat pointed look.

"That knitted... oh." Understanding dawned and Carley nodded some. "Right! I better get back to that!" Grinning, she jaunted around the counter and waved to Charna in the process. "Was nice to meetcha Char!"

Lydia watched as the blonde one moved for the stairs and sighed before glancing towards Charna. "She's a little odd but she's nice." Uncertainty in her words maybe? The way she yelled at short people and the occasional brazen bluntness certainly could put a doubt in your mind.

"Anyways..." Lydia took a couple steps over towards that rather large scrapbook, glancing over it. "I don't know much about wedding dresses honestly, but I looked through a couple magazines and noticed that most seem to be made of silk." She flipped the book open. Inside on each page a fabric swatch was attached. All silks, different textures, and many many different colors. "I thought maybe that would be your fabric of choice, so maybe you'd like to look through here? Let me know what you like?" Pale blues lifted to Charna then. "Unless you had something else in mind?"

Lydia smiled to that, hooking some of those errant green locks behind pointed ears. "A little too energetic sometimes, but I suppose that's a good thing." At Charna's observation of her and the comment brows lifted somewhat (she never did master that nifty one brow arch action, or the brow waggle. Woe is her). "A saint?" There was faint amusement and bemusement in her tone. "I don't think I qualify as anything even close to a saint actually... I'm just like anyone else around here." Hand lifted in a vague gesture.

Pale blues lowered away from Charna and back towards the scrapbook. "And don't worry about that, I'm actually happy to have something to work on and keep myself occupied." Lydia paused a moment, a bit of a slip there, but nothing too alarming. She continued quick enough. "No frills is good.. I think the more beautiful wedding dresses were the simple ones. Gods some were just.. atrocious." She grinned some, looking back up. "Frills, ruffles, bells, sequins... I understand the bride is supposed to be the 'main attraction' at a wedding, but sometimes the dresses they pick out are too much."

"As far as color.. it's probably best you pick your own. I've never been that good with color coordination. It's a nightmare as it is trying to find clothing for myself that match the hair and eyes, much less for other people." She bit at her lip a moment, then tilted her head. "But I guess if I had to make a suggestion... I know white is 'traditional' for whatever reason, but it's a bit.. boring on it's own I think. So something light like a pale blue or.. well.. I guess maybe white could work, and you could accent it with.. a light green. Seafoam maybe? It would match your eyes..."

Trailing off, Lydia fell silent, then gave Charna a sheepish smile. It didn't matter what she thought or suggested really, this was Charna's decision!

"I've got quite a bit of free time actually... especially with business so slow. When we first opened up though, yeah, things were crazy for a while, but it's settled down now." Business had settled down. Life itself? Far from it. "I only work here three days a week nowadays, no reason for me to be here all the time."

Lydia chuckled faintly, glancing down to the book a moment then back up, shifting weight from one foot to the other. "I suppose the bridesmaids are jealous? Since for whatever reason marriage is a big deal around here." Oh Lydia, foot in mouth, foot in mouth! "Er.. I mean.." Geez. She sifted fingers through her hair nervously. "There's nothing wrong with it of course.. just.. well you saw the girls at Jewell's wedding, fighting over the flowers to be wed next?" Except the green haired elf. No no, she squeaked, closed eyes, and swatted at the flowers like they were out to kill her.

Moving on then, before she said something totally regrettable... "You've not been around me that much have you?" With a little smile. "Especially when the Nexus decides I need a change of clothes. It puts me in the most ridiculous things sometimes." Though really, secretly it was worth it, considering the other outfits it had gifted her with. "And I'm sure I've made plenty of bad fashion choices. It's all still pretty new to me." Lydia hadn't even had sight for a year, so perhaps she really was doing okay. Pre-sight though? No no. The talk even made her remember something from quite a while back. A conversation where Jewell had tried helping her out, untying a bow from around her neck and retying it as a spiffy tie. An odd, quirky little thing of a smile touched her lips as she remembered it. Odd the random things that pop in your mind sometimes...

Lydia shook her head faintly, refocusing on the present. At Charna's comment of green hair being 'interesting' she reached up, tugging a lock or three. "Interesting.. yeah. Something like that." Pale blues shifted to inky locks, looking them over. "For the longest time I wanted normal hair.. something darker and just.. not this?" Another tug of green before hand fell to her side. "I actually had Chryrie give me auburn hair for a couple days recently... thought I might like it better, but I didn't really." She shrugged, fingertips tapping on the counter a couple times. "Missed being myself."

She bit her lip a moment. She had been awfully rambly hadn't she? And they were supposed to be discussing the dress. Shame on her. Brows furrowed faintly then as she regarded Charna. "Why would you feel a fraud in white?" It was an innocent question, really. The half elf simply didn't know the traditions of weddings and what white signified. "If you want to wear white, why not?" A little shrug and cant of her head before eyes dipped down to the book. A page or five was flipped through, slowly of course, so Charna could get a good look at the swatches. "If you really do want to go with another color, I'd suggest a cool color.. but then again, I'm kind of partial to them. Maybe..." She trailed off, pointing to a particularly lovely shade of crimson silk. "..red and white?" A questioning gaze was directed to the Vix. "They look great together and would provide a good contrast with one another and your hair."

She smiled uneasily. Lydia hadn't meant to offend and was glad to see Charna wasn't at her remark of marriage. It worked for some, it really did. It made them happy, like Stephen and Jewell. She had seen that. But for herself? Why bother?

Brows lifted a touch at the remark of competition. She had to wonder what that meant. Did people really view the way they dressed as a competition amongst others around Rhydin? Rather than think too hard on that or take it to mean something it most likely didn't, Lydia shook her head to expel it from her mind as she looked over Charna's inky locks. "Yeah, you have wonderful hair. Don't think I've seen anyone with hair quite that black before."

At the purity comment she chuckled. "If that's the case then I don't think anyone around here should be wearing white, be it at a wedding or any other time."

"And cool colors are.. blues, greens, purples.. colors like that." Nodding to the explanation before she leafed through another page, more silks and colors exposed. "I'm not entirely sure what else to suggest..." She trailed off, looking over a vibrant purple silk. She wouldn't be suggesting that. "I could try sketching up some ideas. Though you'd have to keep in mind my ideas rarely look good on paper." A pause then, as she glanced down to Charna's messenger bag.

"Did you have any pictures of things you liked? I know wedding dresses can be in all sorts of different styles. Long sleeves, short sleeves, strapless.. veils.. trains.. If I had a better idea of what you were interested in I'd probably be more help." A little grin then as brows lifted faintly, studying Charna.