"Excuse me but what do you mean who am I? How long have we known each other now Taylor? Honestly!" I say, sounding exasperated, but feeling scared on the inside.

"Exactly. I have known Aria for a while." he says, walking into the room and picking something up. It is a large pair of shears, that look excessively sharp. What could he possibly need those for?

"See? You have known me, Aria, for a while! Why would you be asking who I am?"

"Because Aria would have glanced into this room, told me no immediately and then we would have sat over there." he points to a table with the shears, "and designed a dress together." Taylor shakes his head. "But you actually looked these over. While they are nice dresses." he takes a step closer to me, "they are by no means right for you."

"I still like to admire your..." he cuts me off in the middle of what I am saying by opening the cutting shears wide and swinging them at me. "What are you doing!" I scream at him.

"Killing an imposter!" he snarls and swings at me again.

I run and try to hide behind the dressed. He swings the shears around wildly, not caring that he is shredding the dresses, pieces of them blowing around the floor surrounding us. I do my best to avoid slipping on them as he draws closer to me. My heartbeat is pounding in my ears. I don't even notice that I am cut until I see that there is blood mixing in with the scraps of dresses around us.

The floor is getting more treacherous to run on. I see that Blizzie has climbed up the curtains framing a window I hadn't even noticed. I am so glad that he is out of the way of this mad shears wielding psychopath. If I had to see him die again, I would take those shears and ended my life myself. Most people wouldn't be able to do it, but I have died before, and I know that it would be a reset and not a lasting death. I know I would be able to end my own life if it ever comes to that. However, that time hasn't come yet.

I look to see if the window is open and am saddened to see that it isn't. However, with enough momentum... I grab a mannequin with my adrenaline-fueled strength and run at the window. I slam first the mannequin into the window, drop it, and slam my body into where I had hit the window. My hits must have been strong as the window breaks, and I tumble through it. I slice myself up pretty bad in my attempt to get away and am trapped by the glass shards. I know that my escape has failed and let my body go limp.

"Goodbye imposter." Taylor says and somehow manages to cut off my head with the shears.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Back already?" I hear and open my eyes and see Alias looking down at me.

"Clearly." I say and reach my hand up for him to help me up off of the ground. He reaches down and helps pull me up.

"I am not done with the training just yet. Hang in there a bit longer. I do understand that means you will likely die a few more times before it is finished. At least this time you know what to say not to die."

"Possibly. He said that we would sit down and design a dress together. Which means that I have to not mess up on telling him what I want."

"I think you already have the answers in your head for that one at least." he says, and I realize that he is right.

"I think you will look beautiful by the way. As long as you and I are on the same page. Please don't wear a poufy monstrosity." he says and touches his hand to his head, as though the thought is too much to bear. I do happen to agree with him though. I wouldn't wear a dress like that. No. Just no.

"Trust me, you don't have to worry about that." I tell him. I see relief in his face. Did any part of his mind think that I would wear something like that? Jeeze.

"Back to the last checkpoint then?" he confirms.

"Yes. See you next time." I tell him. He laughs lightly and pokes me in the forehead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"None of these." I tell him immediately when we enter the room. I then walk over to the table that he had indicated earlier.

"Haha, I knew you would say that. I see a glint in your eye. Do you already have a design in mind?" Taylor asks me.

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"Yes, I do." I tell him and hope that I am able to get my idea across.

"Tell me." he says.

We sit down together, and I tell him my idea. He sketches it out as I speak to make sure that it is indeed what I want. I am grateful that he is doing this for me. In my last life I knew nothing about gowns of any sort. At least I have access and knowledge of gowns in this body.

"I am thinking a long dress with a slight slit in the side to make it easier to move and dance. Also, to show off my legs. I have sexy long legs and I wish to flaunt them. I want it high collar and backless to the center of my back. As for the style I am thinking somewhere between a sheath and cami gown. What do you think?" I ask him. I see a small smile playing across his lips.

"And what color?" he asks.

"I was thinking a purple to match my eyes."

"I will make you look divine, like a goddess descended to walk amongst us." he tells me.

I know that he is supposed to be a possible suitor, but I am not getting that feeling from him at all, which is a little confusing to me. Is it just my personal preference playing a role here?

"Are you planning on taking anyone as a date?" I ask him, hoping that I am not triggering a death flag by asking.

"I am thinking about asking Gregor. Is that okay with you? I just think he is such a hunk. I am thinking about getting a love potion from you, but with my remarkable charm and charisma I don't think that I am going to need it." he says, and I hear confidence oozing off of him.

Are we really going with the cliché of the tailor being gay? Not that I have any problem with that. I support him and whoever he chooses to woo. It happens to help me out that I am not the target of his affection.

"Very good. I will have it done. You can pick it up in the next few days."

"How do you manage to complete dresses so quickly?" I ask him, marveling at his talent.

"Magic. Now run along. I have to get to work on this immediately!" he says and hustles me out. I notice that he doesn't have me choosing any of my own fabric, but figure that is for the best. I don't know how detailed the gown information in my head is and I don't want to be stabbed or beheaded again.

As I walk out of the store, I pet Blizzie's sweet little head. "You are such a good boy Blizzie." I coo to him. He nuzzles my hand affectionately and I feel a bubble of happiness within. Even though there is a lot of pain in my past and in my future, I can still get happiness from little things, such as petting my sweet little cat.

"Mrow!" He says in reply. He is such a chatty little thing and can obviously tell when people are speaking to him.

"Alright, what's next?" I ask. I took next to no time in at the tailors, so I was still doing good on time.

The next shop is the alchemists. I don't have anything to buy in here so I don't know what my excuse will be. Oh wait! Maybe they sell alchemical ingredients. That would be a good excuse.

I take in a deep breath, not knowing what to expect. I walk in and see so many marvelous things, things whose purpose I can't even guess at. I walk around, picking things up to examine them more closely, only to put them down after getting a chilling feeling from them.

I see dolls similar to the ones that I make and wonder if I was actually the one that made them. Hmm. It would be strange to sell my items in a shop similar to mine. That wouldn't make very much sense to me if I am being honest. Maybe we are competitors and as such we sell similar things? I wouldn't be surprised if that happens to be the case. I look to see if there is a sign that says what the dolls' purpose is. Wait, a love doll? That makes no sense. I shrug and set it back down.

I continue to look around. There seem to be some kinds of books in here. I pick one up. The title is: The Purpose of Using Crystals to Clear Ones Aura. I roll my eyes and put the book back down. I guess crystals are popular in this world as well. I wonder how they work here, or if they even work at all.

I continue to walk around shop, picking up things here and there. A clock that records the time until your next nightmare? A goblet that makes anything you drink taste delicious and cover the taste of any of the ingredients. I guess that would be good to help cover the taste of medicine. However, I don't think that is that is what most people use this for. This seems better for a prank. A mean prank though.

"Aria! I am so glad that you are here! Are you looking for something new to play with, or are you looking to steal my ideas?" says a voice that slowly gets closer to me. I set down the item in my hand, a horse whistle.

"Of course I don't need to steal your ideas. I have plenty of my own." I tell him, tossing my hair lightly and looking him in the eyes.

"That's good to hear. Care to share your ideas with me? Something that I wouldn't sell here of course." he tells me.

"A potion to make your hair more luminous. It would be interesting to have hair that glows in the dark." I tell him, it being the first thing that pops into my head.

"Hmm." he says, clearly unimpressed by my answer.

The man in front of my has long black hair. He only has the back of his hair pulled up, and the rest falls down on his shoulders. His eyes are ice blue and look at my sharply. I really like that hair style and am often weak for men who wear their hair like that. They are usually mysterious and it takes the longest time to be able to discover their back story.

"I believe you. I will try it when you are done with it. Speaking of trying out one another's newest creations I have one that I would love for you to try. It is a potion that is supposed to let you read the mind of those in the area around you. Do you mind testing it out for me? I'll try to think only the most interesting thoughts." he says and laughs gently.

"Sure, I'll try it." I tell him.

"Great, come on to the back with me. I just finished preparing it."

"Oh okay sure." I tell him.

Why am I following another handsome man into another backroom. I have a feeling that I am making a bad decision, but I will probably be murdered from behind if I don't follow along after him. I'd rather watch him kill me. I think I prefer to see it coming? Is that really better? Maybe it would hurt less if I don't know what's coming. Actually a painless death would be a nice change.

"I see that you brought Sir Blizzard along with you today. He looks very cute in that bag of yours. Who is a good kitty." he croons to Blizzie. Glad to see that these men at least like my cat. Maybe he won't die if this one kills me. I'm going to start thinking that the men who don't kill me make the best candidates and lean into getting to know them better before the others.

"Give me just a moment to get it for you." he says. "You can just sit here for a moment. Do you want some crackers or something while you wait?" he asks me.

"No thank you. I ate pretty recently." I tell him.

"Okay. I won't be long." he says and walks off into a curtained area of his backroom. Is there a reason that his backroom is partitioned off like that? Does he often bring people back here to test out his newest creations? I guess that makes sense? It's also pretty weird at the same time. Or is it? I am still learning more about how this strange world works.

I consider letting Blizzie out of by bag while we are back here, but I don't trust anyone with him. Even though... Ah yes, Andrew the alchemist. Even though Andrew was being really sweet with Blizzie I still don't trust him. I would rather I die and the world resets rather than him dying before a reset occurs.

"Sorry that took so long." I hear Andrew say when he comes back into the room.

It looks like he put it into one of the goblets that he is selling out in his store. I guess this potion tastes pretty bad. That's unfortunate, but I guess it is a good way to sell more of his shop items.

"Thanks. Down the hatch again. Don't forget, you said that you would think of nice things while this is in effect." I tell him, giving him a smile.

The potion hits fast. I look at him, see his suspicion bar extremely high. I do happen to hear his voice in my head for a moment before everything goes black."

"I don't know who you are or how you look like Aria. But I do think that you happen to make a pretty corpse. I'll take good care of your cat until I find the real Aria." says Andrew's voice in my head. Dang. Poison. It doesn't hurt at all though. I close my eyes and embrace the darkness.