And score one for the bomb-making blonde! Between the two of them, there was apparently enough sympathy, cuteness, and BS-laden excuses to get the officer to let them go or possibly just give up on understanding the situation.

Tses hooked a right arm around Chrys's left, and Chrys was certain the link was in place as she could feel the pressure of the arm-link on her free right. Before her partner could question the sensation she was most likely feeling in her left arm, Chrys bowed her head with a smile. 'Thank you so much, sir!" And before anything could be questioned, Chrys pulled her new friend away.

Once they were out of earshot, Chrys started giggling. "'Best behavior?!' That's great!" She doubted very much that either of their "best behaviors" would amount to much.

"So that was close." It would have been tragic for her consecutive crime spree to come to an end at the hands of a mall cop. "I'll probably have to wait a while before coming back to this mall, so we might as well do what we said and enjoy some cousin bonding time," she decided with a grin.

Chrys dragged a sharpened, manicured nail over the back of her left hand as a way of demonstrating the new leverage she could now flaunt. "You weren't planning on going anywhere, right? Because that would be... disappointing."

As Tses linked arms with the girl, she felt a strange sensation in her body. It was like a ghost feeling, like something was touching her skin she knew wasn't there, an echo of pressure resting on her forearm. As she was pulled away from the cops, she felt confusion mingling her face, and listened to the still stocking clad girl praise her actions. It sounded remarkably like the old lady next door would speak to her kittens; sickly sweet and slightly smothering.

The more she thought about it, the more Tses was reminded of a predator on the prowl. The way the girl walked, the way she acted; she had a smug little chip on her shoulder, but it was more than just a spoiled rich girl, it was that of a girl with power. After a few seconds of deciding whether or not she could get away from such a person, Tses was starting to regret staying around as long as she did, instead of getting out of here.

Every word seemed honey drenched, and it sounded like nails on a chalkboard to Tses, who liked to think of herself as rough on the edges and anything but girly. The giggle didn't reassure her, and Tses wanted to pull away, but the last thing she needed was the cops seeing her run from her dear 'cousin'. She'd have to wait a few more minutes for that...

She was torn back from her plotting of an escape route, when the girl started speaking of carrying on their cousin bonding time. "Well, you know, I should probably go home before the jewelry store start wonder--'" Her statement was cut short by a sharp pain on her hand and Tses flinched slightly, glancing down to see what scratched her. There were no marks on her skin, and the girl started talking in that now frightening way, and her companion's sharply manicured nails hovered above her delicate skin. At first, Tses was just confused. How could she feel pain when the other girl was no where around scratching her? Then thoughts started to click one at a time, like tumblers in a lock.

Click, click, click, click.

That's not.... can...no way.

Hell no.

Her face flashed a momentary moment of fear, before she forced it back into her gut, and gave the steadiest smile she could muster. "If we want to hang out, you should probably retrieve your shoes from the store..."

Chrys was so caught up in everything that happened, she completely forgot about her discarded footwear until reminded. She looked down at her feet, realizing that she was, indeed, still walking around in tights. "Oh right. I guess that makes sense." Returning to what was technically "the scene of the crime" was a hassle, but not one she could not handle. "Fine, we'll go back, and if they ask about those earring things, I'll just buy them. That should fix things."

Remaining interlocked with her "cousin," because it was the easiest way to keep her from running off, she dragged her back to the shop, (whether she wanted to or not.) Before they even crossed into the store, the employees ran out to the two women. "Miss Van Hart, are you okay?"

"What?" She looked over to her trapped companion and realized what the worry was. "Oh that? It was just a little bit of fun. Nothing to worry about." She forgot about the show she pretty much put on for the staff, but everything was returning to normal; even her makeshift piercing was already clotting back up.

"O...kay." The woman was still unsure, but apparently not willing to question Chrysanthemum, which made sense with the next question: "So... are you done with our performance review?"

"Huh?" It was not until that moment that Chrys remembered why she was at the mall originally: the shop was a property of her father's company, and as a luxury item dealer, she was asked by her father to check on the status. It was not until she arrived that she forgot her mission and shifted her focus to buying jewelry. "Oh right. Yes, you'll receive a very good review!" Did not matter to her.

"Thank you miss!" It was probably nice for the manager to receive the news, as it might involve a bonus for her as well, whether or not the review was filed as an afterthought. "So... about the tiara?"

"Yes?"

"...Are you... um, keeping it?"

"Hmm..." Well, since she was offering. "I think I will! Thank you very much."

"Um, alright..." She continued to speak, but Chrys was occupied with slipping back into her heels.

When she was done, she interrupted the manager mid-sentence. "Alright, have a nice day, Happy New Years and such." With that, she entered the mall hallway, pulling her friend along.

"So I guess my dad owns that place. Go figure," she joked, probably not placing nearly enough importance on the revelation.

Halfway back to the jewelry shop, Tses evaluated her situation on a point by point basis, deciding to score how much trouble she was now in. She ticked the little points off in her head, as she was propelled along by the female next to her, and tried to distract herself from the situation at hand.

1) Stolen earrings in her pocket.
2) Caught running through the mall and barely escaped mall cops.
3) Lied her way out of situation with mall cops, and escaped giant muscle man.
4) Missed her exit in the mall and was now returning to scene of the crime with a spoiled rich kid.

The next problems she assessed on a higher scale, because they determined her current fate.

1) Spoiled rich kid determined to take her stolen earrings.
2) Spoiled rich kid's father owns jewelry shop said earrings came from.
3) Spoiled rich kid may possibly be a mutant.
4) Spoiled rich kid was now holding her captive with who knows what in mind.

She tallied the points in her head, along with the still undecided power this girl seemed to be exerting (the shared sensations were hard to label in her mind), and came to her conclusion: Tses was, decidedly, screwed.

She resisted sighing as the jewelry employees interrogated the girl, and watched with a mild amount of awe at the level of fear she seemed to instigate. The way she casually claimed the tiara, and then walked out of the store was amusing and both laughable at the same time. She didn't know whether this girl was dumb, ignorant, or just powerful enough to get whatever she wanted.

"So.... do I get to leave now?" Tses ventured cautiously, testing the waters she was now in.

The girl's question was an innocent one, which was almost as adorable to Chrys as it was funny. And chuckle she did as she ended the little delusion that their day together was over. "Oh sweetie, no. I'm not going to get to play at this mall for a while after this, so you're coming shopping."

Admittedly, people sometimes tried to put up a struggle when being held against their will, so it was important to remind her of the situation she was in. "Those bomb things are pretty nifty, but I'm sure you've realized you would only be hurting yourself with them." Her voice was hushed, since the discussion of explosives was frowned upon in public. "And I've certainly proven I wouldn't care about hurting you." Or myself, for that matter.

Resuming her more cheerful tone at a less paranoid volume, she placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. "So yeah. You've got a kind of pretty pauper poor punk thing going. I've got other plans for you though," she promised with a wicked smile. Dress Up was a fun game. "I'm Chrys, by the by." She was hoping to get a name out of her so she could stop mentally referring to her as "the girl."

Dress....up.

Oh, hell no.

Tses tried to put on the breaks, dragging her black buckled punk boots against the ground and desperately looking for an escape from the tiara clad maniac. While some people would be excited to be taken shopping by a complete stranger, Tses was not one of them. Images of glitter and skirts and dresses flashed in front of her eyes, and other terrors only she could imagine. She heard the girls warning, but she couldn't force herself to keep going along with this. "There is no way I'm going to be a dress up doll!" She said, but it sounded more like a plea than a statement. She didn't have very good traction, and her dead weight turned into more of a stumbling skitter behind her captor.

Chrys HAD proven a point about how dangerous she was, but the threat of pain wasn't as strong as the threat of pretty. If she brought one eyelash curler or lipstick container near her... there would be trouble. Tses would make sure of that.

"Seriously, we're doing introductions now. 'Oh nice to meet you Chrys, I'm Tses, thanks for trying to ruin my life..." She growled under her breathe. Then she hit herself for giving her psychotic rich captor her name.

Smooth move, moron....

So there was some resistance, which was what Chrys expected, but amidst the struggle, a name slipped out, followed by a facepalm that could be felt on her own forehead. A victorious smirk crossed her face. "Tess, huh? Not the worst name." Not better than Chrysanthemum, but it was not as bland as Amy or Kristen.

"Okay, Tess, this is how the game works: we go shopping and you play nice, and you get to leave with new clothes and the fancy earrings you pocketed." Now that she had a new way to be in control, the jewelry was pretty uninteresting to her. "Give me trouble or try running, and we both take a trip to the hospital, where police will happily greet you." It was rather nice being the one with the legal high ground for once. It was rare that she could blackmail a plaything with a straight face.

"So... yeah. Come along!" She started in a direction, hoping Tess would not make the knife in her purse necessary. "There's at least one or two nice places in this crappy mall."

Tses considered her options. Go shopping, die for a few hours... keep the earrings. Don't go shopping, get injured, don't get the earrings. Oddly enough, the deciding point seemed to be the ever sparkling earrings, and her ears poor rapidly disappearing piercings. Painful injury was a serious threat, sure, but she went through a lot to steal these. It would suck to loose them because she didn't want to play 'dress up'.

Maybe she could at least get a few worthwhile things while she was out. An over shirt, or a skirt that matched her boots, or heck, even jeans would work out. If any of those things were on the shopping list she wouldn't be complaining so much. But there was a twinkle in Chrys' eye that reminded her of a three year old girl standing in front of the Christmas display window, pointing at the biggest, gaudiest pink doll house ever, declaring 'I want that one!'. Meanwhile, the horrified parents stared and the price tag, desperate to convince her she wanted anything else. Thing could quickly go in that direction.

She pulled her face into a frown, made one last stubborn attempt to think of a way to escape, then sighed and grumbled. "Fine. I'll play nice. Just no bows!" She then felt herself being dragged in the general direction of a store, dread sinking in her gut.

It couldn't be that bad, could it?

As much as the loss of bows was a painful one, (that blonde hair was dying for a big red one! How did she not see that?) Tess was submitting to her will, which was the easiest way to put some pep in her sociopathic step! "Deal!" Eagerly, she took Tses's hand and dragged her off to a nearby clothing store.

Once in the store, Chrys's first decision was to approach the counter and ask for a dressing room key. With that in her hand, she led (or shoved, depending on how you looked at it,) Tess into the changing room and closed the door. "Okay, I'll be back in a second! In the meantime, if you could prepare yourself like a... oh what did you call yourself? Oh yes, a dress-up doll. Thank you!"

Chrys darted back out to the store floor, consciously checking back on the changing area to make sure Tess had no crazy ideas of escaping. Chrys collected various sets of clothing, some in varying sizes to be sure she did not misjudge what the girl was hiding underneath all those layers of hers.

Chrys returned to the room, patiently remaining outside the door. "Okay, something easy first." She slid the first set of clothing under the door. There were four different pairs of jeans and one camisole to go along with them. Chrys wanted to see what Miss Punk looked like with something more preppy. "I wasn't exactly sure about your jean size, so hopefully one of those works."

Now the fun was in sitting at the bench across from the door and patiently awaiting her doll's reveal.

Just like that, Tses found herself trapped in a small cubical of torture.

There were four pale walls that looked like a mixture of milk and mud, with a slick smooth texture that reflected little glimmers of light. There was a bench behind her, two hooks for clothes to her right, and in front of her was a full length mirror. In true department store glory, the mirror didn't hide one inch of her, from the steel toes of her combat boots up to the very tips of her ponytail. As Chrys walked away, Tses put one hand on either side of the mirror, and stared intently at the girl in her reflection. Compared to her appearance in most mirrors, this one made her look slightly decent. The lighting and the way it reflected on her skin had that overly flattering appearance that made you want to buy whatever you wore, because you were convinced it looked amazing on you. Tses knew better though. Nothing looked good on her.

Then the clothes appeared under the door, and her face lost it's color. The jeans she could live with. But whatever that aweful shimmery piece of fabric was on the floor was like a mouse trap waiting to spring. Slowly, she bend down and picked up the shirt, and held it out in front of her like a smelly piece of laundry. Slowly, she lifted the second strap, and inventoried the object. She grumbled slightly as she did. "Are you sure this is a shirt.... You may be missing some fabric here..." She muttered, and grabbed the jeans, tossing them on the bench.

Like a prisoner, Tses unbuckled the straps on her boots, then unzipped them and kicked them off into the corner. She kept her leggings on, and her socks since she was just trying on jeans for now, and took off her combat shorts and skirt at the same time, scooting them to the corner. She picked a pair of jeans and slipped into them. Surprisingly, the first pair fit well, so she didn't have to try to pick another pair, then she wiggled out of her over shirt, and the black more skin tight one under it. She felt like one of those colonial women: ever layer had another one under it. Off went tank top, leg straps, arm straps, fishnets. She kept her arm bands on for now, and shoved the shirt finally over her frame.

She stared at the mirror, and analyzed her slim figure. The shirt fit ok, but the color didn't suit her, and she hated the fact she could see all the tiny scars across her upper arms, neck, and down her torso and back. The jeans fit nicely though, so she hoped she could keep them. If only she could survive being seen in it.

With a grumble, she opened the door, and sighed. "There. Now you can tell me how bad it looks."

As Tess removed layers of clothing, Chrys could feel the sensation of fabric shifting and pulling along her skin, followed by a change of temperature that came with disrobing.

Chrys could hear the grumbling of Tess in the dressing room, and she (dis)respectfully and willingly ignored it. The top was plenty modest; Tess was obviously the type of girl who liked to cover up, so it was a change for her. She should have counted herself lucky that Chrys had not chosen some midriff-exposing halter top number. Or was there one in the pile? She admittedly put her clothing collection together in a hurry.

Tess opened the door and Chrys shot to her feet. She took Tess by the shoulders and looked her over, followed by quickly turning her to appreciate the ensemble from the back. With a grin, she appreciated her keen eye."There. I knew a nice pair of jeans would prove you actually had a bottom!" After all, was that not the purpose of jeans?

"As for the top... it's nice, but blue might go with your eyes better. Still, at least there actually is some skin under that shell of clothing you walk around in! And these..." Chrys's finger traced along a path of Tess's scar network, feeling a twinge of envy. She sighed and muttered, "Ah, if you were a man or if I was drunk--anyway! I'm calling this one a keeper!" The top would be switched out, but the tough-skinned blonde was walking away with at least one addition to her wardrobe.

Tses felt her face unwillingly flush as Chrys started examining her. She felt like a car being displayed on the showroom floor, but it was for a Porsche dealership, and she was an old beat up VW bug. She choicely ignored the girls comment about her butt, because if she let her mind linger on that too long, this was going to be a very awkward and very long experience. But she couldn't help agreeing that blue would go better with her eyes (and not make her pale complexion look so sickly).

For a few seconds, she thought she was surviving, then her skin crawled as Chrys traced the scars on her back. Tses tried to squirm away from the touch, hating that she acknowledge the marks, yet strangely surprised at what she said about them. The tone was almost... admiring. Tses didn't know whether this was a good thing, or a bad thing though. With this girls powers, it may not be the best compliment. That's like a vampire admiring you have been nice smelling blood. Plus, she was fairly sure by now this girl had some borderline masochism.

"Well.... glad you somewhat approve? What's... next?" She cautiously asked the question, glancing around for the next outfit in the line of degrading clothing.

It was not whole-hearted gratitude, but Tess was indulging Chrys, and that was close enough to being on the same page for Chrys to feel optimistic about their outting.

She noticed Tess trying to peek around at the outfits awaiting her, which prompted Chrys to shake her head and nudge the girl back into the dressing room. "Nope nope, you get your next outfit once the door closes and I can feel you taking off those." Once her prey was back in the changing cage, the door closed with a click.

Chrys waited until she could feel denim passing by legs and open air on her tummy before handing over two examples of a similar concept.

Chrys folded her arms, speaking to the door. "You get to pick one, but it is mandatory for a girl to have a little red dress for nighttime troublemaking, and I could venture a guess that you are lacking." It did not take a genius to look at Tess and assume the girl had never been within five feet of a cocktail dress.

Tses was propelled back into the cubical of doom, and she grumbled as she shut the door and locked it behind her. She took a second to childishly make faces at the thin metal divider before taking off the jeans and setting them on the bench. Next came the shirt, which she momentarily considered hurling across the store, before she carefully hung it back on the hanger and hung it on the wall. She took a deep breathe, and fidgeted her now cold and exposed legs, then picked up the clothing that was pushed under the door.

Slowly, she picked up the slinky red numbers, and held them up in front of the mirror. This... was what she was dreading. the second was very figure hugging, so she dismissed it immediately. There was no way to even walk in something like that, so she wasn't going to embarrass herself trying. Then she got the next dress and slowly and 'painfully' pulled it over her body. At least this dress covered up most of the scars on her torso, but her shoulders and upper arms were still exposed. Her bare legs seemed terribly pale when she looked at them in the mirror, but the red of the dress at least made her seem slightly less ghostly.

Trying to put aside her personal hatred for the piece, she had to admit it fit well. Her boobs weren't flat like most girls, and the dress showed she had a little bit of a feminine side. Well, that was before you noticed the ponytail and arm band she still hadn't removed. She glanced at the black bands on her wrists, and doubted she would get away with keeping them on. But she was determined to try as she pushed open the door and walked out.

"Taadaaa." She muttered sarcastically. crossing her arms across her chest.

As Tess switched into the dress of her choosing, Chrys could feel the soft material clinging to her skin. "Wow, that one is nice and soft! Hope you like it!" she called through the door, wondering which of her selections she was feeling.

Her new friend finally emerged and Chrys got a good look at her. It was not the former fitting of the dresses, but it flattered Tess's body well. "Hmm." Chrys got close to Tess, looking her over at point-blank range before deciding how she wanted to improve upon the look.

With swift hands, she took Tses's face by the chin and cheek in one hand, and the other placed a finger behind the girl's hair-tie. Running the finger down the length of the ponytail, the band fell to the ground and Tess's hair fell out of it's containment and down to her shoulders. "There. Now you look club ready."

Except her posture and her confidence were all wrong. It was rather silly, since she was actually a fairly attractive young woman. Because of Chrys's unique affinities, it did not hit her right away that Tess could be self-conscious about her lovely scars. "Do the scars bug you that much? Fine."

A lovely outfit was not going to be ruined by bad body image. Chrys grabbed Tess by the banded wrist and pulled her out into the store. There was a shelf of shawls right near the entry to the dressing rooms, so Chrys started digging through options as Tess remained waiting.

Eventually, Chrys pulled out a sheer black shawl and thrust it toward Tess. "Here, try this." Some people could be so difficult.