#and when i suddenly needed to costume someone in a tuxedo with no budget for a tuxedo it fit him perfectly

[sassmill]

Unpicking a suit lining at the sleeve head like. I’m undoing this hand sewn seam that someone made in 1935. I know the name of the man the suit was made for and the name of the man that tailored it and I can see proof of the human labor that made this. I can see the layers of wool roving and hair canvas used to interface the shoulders. I just worked with hair canvas for the first time recently on another garment, and this garment carries this same historical textile and practice. This wool and silk is nearly a century old and I’m mending it so it can continue to be worn and I’m directly interacting with human artistry and skill in the same way it was originally done on this garment. In another ten, twenty years, if this garment is still in use and I’m not the one mending it, they will be able to see the difference in the original construction and where I’ve worked on it. They might be able to tell how recently it’s been mended because of the fabric I’m using to patch. And then if they mend it, and add to the signature of stitches on this garment, somebody else down the line can look at it and see each of us there in the seams we’ve sewn. Every garment is a museum.

[loosescrewslefty]

Squeaking By

Ever since she got her Miraculous, Marinette had picked up more than one peculiar habits. 

This wasn’t a side effect, or something to do with the miraculous itself. Instead, it mostly had to do with the fact that she now had a near constant companion in Mullo, her sweet, shy and soft spoken kwami. Marinette adored the little immortal mouse. When she was nearly blinded by panic at the idea of going up against supervillains and protecting the citizens of Paris from the wrath of the man who was abusing the Ladybug Miraculous’ power as he scoured Paris for the Ring of the Black Cat, which had been lost during the invasion of Paris during WWII, Mullo’s calm, quiet confidence in her had been the only thing that gave her the courage to jump into the fray. 

She absolutely trusted her kwami’s wisdom and judgement, and she wanted Mullo to feel as comfortable as possible as the two of them worked together to help Fu stop Scarab, and find all the Miraculouses that had been lost and scattered to the wind. And that desire lead to Marinette changing a few small things about her day to day life. Loud noises were kept to a minimum now, since Mullo preferred the quiet. Marinette now had an extensive collection of puzzles and little brain teasers, because Mullo enjoyed the challenge of them. And peanut butter cookies now had a strange habit of mysteriously vanishing from the bakery and finding themselves in Marinette’s room.

And there were other ways Mullo’s influence affected Marinette too.

Marinette wasn’t always fully aware of these influences, unfortunately. Because of that, they tended to come to her attention when other people noticed them, which could be a little bit embarrassing sometimes. Especially when Marinette wasn’t expecting it and it was the guy she had a crush on who noticed.

Which, of course, was exactly what happened.

“Marinette!” 

Glancing up from her sketchbook, Marinette smiled when she saw Rose and Juleka approaching her, looking excited about something. 

“Hey, guys! What’s up?” She asked as she closed her book to give her friends her full attention.

“You won’t believe what happened to us! It’s so amazing!” Rose said, almost bouncing in excitement. Next to her, Juleka was flushed pink with a wide smile. Marinette actually DID have a pretty good idea of why her friend was so excited, but she wasn’t going to rob Rose of the chance to spread the good news to others herself.

“What happened?” She asked, doing her best to look innocently curious and NOT like she had any hand at all in her friend’s glee.

“Kitty Section’s opening up for Clara Nightingale at the May Music Festival!!!” Rose almost screamed before dissolving into a fit of giggles. “And Multimouse is the one who recommended us to her! We’re one of Multimouse’s favorite bands! I can’t believe a superhero is one of our fans! Isn’t that amazing?!”

“Totally cool!”Juleka agreed at her side, looking more excited than Marinette had ever seen her quiet goth friend.

“That’s great!” Marinette said with a wide grin. “Congratulations, you guys! Kitty Section totally deserves this, you guys are all so talented,” Her friends both practically glowed at the praise, and Marinette felt a swell of happiness at seeing the pair so excited. Especially when she caught sight of Mylene giving a surprised laugh as Ivan swept her up into a hug and literally spin the both of them around as the small girl giggled breathlessly about getting dizzy. She was happy she could play a role in giving her friends this chance, and she was sure they would knock everyone’s socks off when the big night came.

“Thanks, Marinette! That means so much, coming from you!” Rose said, looking giddy. Marinette blinked a little at that.

“...Coming from me?” She repeated, a little confused. Why would her opinion matter so much to her friends?

“Well, you see, we actually wanted to ask you something…” Rose explained, fidgeting slightly, “See, Clara is actually gave us a budget so we could get the things we need for the show, and we were wondering if we could commission you to make us some costumes for our performance. But only if you’re not too busy! I know Lila mentioned that you’ve been designing for some contest and said we shouldn’t bother you earlier this week when we were talking about going to the movies, and I don’t want you burning out or anything!” Marinette frowned a little. So Lila was taking advantage of her friends attempts to be considerate to justify excluding Marinette from group activities as well as taking advantage of them so they’d wait on the little liar hand and foot, was she? 

“Lila must have... heard wrong,” she said, biting back the temptation to accuse her of intentionally lying again. Her friends were happy right now, and she didn’t want to ruin that for them. She knew even if Rose and Juleka did ask, Lila would turn this into another he said/she said thing by claiming she heard it from someone else and Marinette had no evidence of Lila’s true nature to warn her friends away. “I’m not doing any contests right now, and I’d love to help Kitty Section make costumes.”

“THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOOOOOU!!!” Rose said, grappling Marinette into a spine shattering hug. “Oh, this is going to be so INCREDIBLE! Your designs are always the best, Marinette!”

“It’s no problem, Rose. I’m always happy to help,” Marinette told the blonde once she’d freed herself from the other girl’s vice grip and regained the oxygen her lungs had lost. “Is there a theme to the concert?”

“Midnight in Paris!” Rose told her, grinning widely. “Clara showed us the designs for it, and it’s going to look so romantic!”

“It’s awesome,” Juleka agreed, grinning. “All dark, with smoke and candles and stuff.”

“We can do something like that, with Kitty Section’s image and sound,” Marinette said, the creative wheels in her head starting to spin, “a kind of Phantom of the Opera sort of look. Rose, we can put you in a punked out ball gown, and Juleka can wear a tuxedo dress. Maybe Ivan and Luka can wear capes…!”

Fully lost in a cloud of inspiration now, Marinette flipped her sketchbook back open and began putting pencil to paper, sketching out rough concepts of the image she had begun to form in her head. Rose and Juleka eagerly took up seats on either side of her to watch over her shoulder as an image began to take shape under her pencil.

She didn’t know how long she sat like that, only half in reality and listening to Rose and Juleka give suggestions or excitedly praise the design details they liked while the rest of her sank further into the creative bliss. In fact, Marinette was so caught up in designing that it took her a minute to register the sound of someone chuckling in front of her. Blinking out of her daze, Marinette brought herself out of her head to focus on her surroundings once more, glancing up to see who was laughing.

And then promptly freezing in shock at the sight of Adrien Agreste’s green eyes less than a hand’s width away from her face.

Yelping in shock, Marinette flailed to put some distance between her and the model, but just ended up throwing off her balance and nearly falling into the rosebush planted behind the bench she’d been sitting on instead. Luckily, Juleka caught her before she had a VERY uncomfortable encounter with the thorn-covered plant, but unfortunately Adrien was standing right there and witnessed the entire thing.

Quick! Distract him from your total lack of grace! Say something!!! “Adrien! How you be?!” Marinette babbled out helplessly, cringing a little and screaming inside as Rose and Juleka shot her sympathetic looks.

“Oh, hey Marinette! Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you, I just wanted to see what you were working on,”

“Marinette is making Kitty Section’s costumes for the May Music Festival!” Rose told the model happily. “We’re opening up for Clara Nightingale.”

“Seriously? Wow, that’s incredible! Congratulations, guys!” Adrien said, turning to give Marinette a grin and a cheeky wink. “You guys are gonna look AND sound amazing! I can’t wait to see you perform!” Marinette was in danger of passing out from all the blood that rushed to her face at her crush’s praise.

“W-what were you laughing about, anyways?” Marinette asked, suddenly remembering what had distracted her from her drawing and fearing the worse, “is there something weird about one of my designs?”

“What? Oh! NO! It wasn’t your designs, I swear!” Adrien reassured her quickly, looking a little self conscious. “I just thought it was cute that you kept making little squeaking sounds, actually.”

...What?

“Squeaking sounds?” Marinette repeated, perplexed. She turned to Rose and Juleka to see if they knew what Adrien was talking about, but found them both studiously avoiding her eye.

“Yeah. You kept making these cute little squeaks. Kinda like a happy hamster or something,” Adrien told her. Marinette gaped at him, mouth opening and closing soundlessly as she tried to process what he was saying. “Anyways, I’d better get going. Gorilla’s gonna start looking for me soon. Tell Kitty Section to break a leg for me!” and, with that, Adrien was off, oblivious to the fact that he had just tilted Marinette’s entire world on its axis.

“Wow, Marinette! You did a lot better that time!” Rose praised her. “Most of your sentences were completely coherent!”

“...Do I squeak?” Marinette asked her friends.

“Erm, sorry, what?”

“Do. I. Squeak?” Marinette repeated, already dreading the response she knew she was going to get. Sure enough, Rose and Juleka exchanged looks that told Marinette all she needed to know, and she buried her face in her sketchbook with a wail of dismay.

“You don’t do it all the time! Just when you’re happy!” Rose assured her hastily. “We didn’t want to say anything because we didn’t want you to feel self conscious about it. Right, Juleka?”

“It’s cute,” Juleka assured Marinette quickly at Rose’s prompting. Rose nodded aggressively in agreement.

“Adrien probably thinks I’m a nutcase!” Marinette moaned, curling into a ball.

“No he doesn’t! He even said he thought it was cute too!”

“What if he was just saying that to be nice? He was laughing at me about it!” Marinette said, curling further in on herself. Rose and Juleka exchanged uneasy looks, clearly stuck on how to make their friend feel better. Marinette gave a sigh, feeling a bit guilty for dumping her baggage on the two when they just wanted to be excited about the amazing opportunity that they had. Composing herself as best as she could, Marinette collected all her things and put them in her bag, giving her worried friends the closest thing to a smile that she could manage. “I think maybe I should head back home now. I’ll focus better in my own room. I’ll show you the first drafts for your costume designs tomorrow at school, okay?”

“Okay. Thanks again for helping out, Marinette!” Rose said as Juleka waved at her quietly. Marinette nodded at the pair before making a break for it, heading back home as quickly as she could manage without superpowers. She nodded absently at her parents when they greeted her in the bakery on her way up to her room, but didn’t stop and speak to anyone. Then, as soon as the trap door was shut, Marinette collapsed into a lump on the floor, moaning loudly in humiliation and self-pity. 

Away from prying eyes, Mullo flew out of Marinette’s purse to give her teenage companion a concerned look.

“You okay, Pinkie?” she asked worriedly, brows pinching together when Marinette just groaned and curled into an even tighter ball.

“Is it really too much to ask that I go one day without making an idiot of myself in front of the boy I like?” she asked her Kwami miserably. 

“Is it really something to feel so embarrassed about? Is it offensive? I squeak all the time,” Mullo reminded her, slightly confused. The rules of propriety among humans seemed to change with every new generation, and within each culture, so it was difficult for her to keep up with social taboos.

“You’re a mouse, Mullo. You’re supposed to squeak. Humans are not. Girls are not. Especially not in front of the boy they like.”

“Not even if you picked it up from spending time with me?” Mullo asked. That caused Marinette to unfurl, giving Mullo a confused look.

“...What?” 

“Your squeaking. It’s something you started doing because I squeak around you all the time. Because I’m happy here. You just kind of… picked it up. I never said anything about it because I thought you were aware of it.”

“I… oh. Oh.” Marinette said, coming to a bit of a revelation. Mullo did squeak around her a lot when it was just the two of them and the little mouse kwami was happy. Marinette had never minded the little mouse noises- even thought they were adorable- but hadn’t realized that she had adopted the habit purely due to spending so much time with the kwami.

Suddenly, Marinette remembered something her mother had told her years ago, when she asked her why her mother had a habit of sticking her tongue out a little when she was focusing on something. Her Maman gave a little, embarrassed laugh at the question and admitted that it was just a weird habit she’d picked up from spending time with her Uncle, since he did the same thing.

“Sometimes we pick up little quirks from people when we’re close to them, sweetie. I guess that’s just human nature,” Sabine told her warmly. Marinette remembered feeling a little jealous at the time, wishing that she had people she was close enough to to ‘share’ habits with.

“Pinkie? Did you hear me?” Marinette was jolted out of her thoughts and back to the present at Mullo’s concerned question, blinking a few times to focus on the worried Kwami floating a few inches in front of her.

“H-huh?”

“I asked you if you want me to tell you when you squeak from now on. So you can break the habit.” Mullo asked patiently with a gentle smile. “That way, you don’t have to worry about embarrassing yourself around Adrien again.” Marinette studied the kwami for a second, giving her suggestion some consideration, before flashing Mullo a warm smile.

“No, it’s okay,” she said, pulling herself off of the ground and dusting herself off. Mullo gaped at the teen as she pulled her sketchbook out of her bag and opened it up to the sketches she’d been working on before.

“But… you were so upset about it!” Mullo said, clearly struggling to make sense of the girl’s sudden change of heart.

“Yeah, but know that I know why I’m doing it, I’m okay with it,” Marinette said, giving Mullo a soft look as the Kwami puzzled over her actions. Maybe it was a little weird and yeah, doing it in front of Adrien was extremely embarrassing, but it was kinda nice to know she and Mullo were close enough that she was picking up new habits from the kwami. Trying to break those habits felt like a rejection of that bond, and Marinette didn’t want to do that for anyone, even Adrien Agreste.

“...You humans are so confusing sometimes,” Mullo said with a small huff of frustration.

“Yeah, but you love us anyways,” Marinette said, grinning teasingly at the mouse when she shook her head in fond exasperation and sighed before settling herself comfortably on Marinette’s shoulder. Giggling a little, Marinette reached up to give the kwami a small, affectionate pat on the head.

She just grinned wider when Mullo gave her a happy little squeak in response to the attention.