Spinning around gently, Delphina was obviously very pleased with her choices. The corset she had chosen had a similar pattern to the trousers, although it was not the same shade and had metal front latches. Everything complemented each other like she had hoped.
"Right, no gloves for now, I need to fix up my hair. Let's go for something the old Delphina most likely would have done, but add some of my flair to it."
Taking a look around once again, the dressing room had a low sofa-style window seat in front of the vanity dresser she'd overlooked because of the wardrobe. As she came closer to it and sat down, compartment lines formed on the dresser's flat top.
"Well, that seems fancy," she said as she placed her hand on one of the lines, causing a compartment to pop up vertically. Inside were various brushes that were clearly for makeup. Not the hair. This continued for some time until all the compartments had been brought up.
"Okay, so the far left is jewellery you wouldn't put on clothes. Then there are various hair ribbons and ties, and this side is hair brushes, tools, and makeup stuff. Good to know."
Using a comb to get any tangles out of her now dry, wavy hair, she quickly braided up one side and tied everything back together into a high ponytail. Before flipping it up and under itself, so the tie was no longer showing.
She had decided flipping it down and under would make it look too fancy with the plait, and who knew right now how Delphina had previously done things. Better safe than sorry. Quickly standing up and giving everything a once-over, she finally put on her half-palm gloves.
"Hmm, yup, that's the look. I can probably do a few variations of this in the future, and it'll be fine!"
"Whilst it's odd there are no windows letting in natural light here or in the bathroom, I think everything ties in well, colour-wise. But what time is it now? Whilst I was pretty absorbed getting dressed, I doubt with Delphina's senses I would have missed someone coming to my front door."
Left with only socks on and still no slippers, Delphina strode back into the bedroom area with determination, before plonking herself down on the conversation pit's sofa. Staring in the direction of the bedroom window arches, a soft breeze was coming through, causing the curtains to flutter as she watched.
"There must be a balcony or something. I'll take a look in a moment, that's for sure."
Looking once more towards the front door, situated a little away from the conversation pit. Delphina stood back up to head in the opposite direction, where the bedroom window arch lay.
"Why did I even sit down?" she chuckled, as she finally stopped just in front of the arch. And as she expected, there wasn't a drop-sash window, but an outwards-opening wood and glass panel door hidden behind the gossamer.
Stepping through and out over the threshold, she was met with a rather lacklustre sight. It was a large and well-maintained stone balcony with decorative scrollwork, accompanied by a small metal table and chair set. However, there were no views.
Mildly baffled by what appeared to be a tall privet hedge that had been planted just beyond the balcony edges. Delphina could only see the sky, with no skyline in sight. If she concentrated, she could just about hear the presence of people in the distance.
"Whilst I'm glad there's plenty of sunlight, which floor am I even on? Or is this to help dampen the noise due to a Sword Master's senses?"
"Oh, come on, surely she was well trained enough to be around normal sounds regularly. It's not even difficult to do once you're a Master."
"Wait, what if Delphina was so hated by her family that she was relegated to this distant area?! Is that why no one has come to check on her yet?"
As Delphina's thoughts began to spiral into late-day drama TV show level of family issues. A small grey square began to expand quietly into existence behind her.
[INITIALISING]
[INFORMATION & ASSISTANCE SYNC IN PROGRESS]
Taking a deep breath, Delphina ended up sitting at the wrought metal table, staring at the sky as the clouds drifted by. She'd just realised she'd walked out here with fresh, clean socks on and no shoes. As a result, she was debating whether continuing to exist was worth it.
A soft beeping noise began to emanate from inside the bedroom. As Delphina quickly snapped her head towards the noise, she caught a glimpse of the system loading screen in passing. The beeping noise came closer, now accompanied by a gentle rattling.
Tensing slightly as she was utterly unprepared for this situation, Delphina waited until she heard the noise begin to move away once more.
Pointing at the screen, "come with me," she whispered, and slowly slunk into the bedroom to see what was causing the noise. To her surprise, she caught the tail end of a short, orb-like metal contraption jerking through the bathroom door. She decided to wait and see where 'the orb' would leave Delphina's room from.
[INFORMATION & ASSISTANCE SYNC IN PROGRESS, 65%]
The now slightly larger grey square swung into Delphina's field of view.
The bathroom door opened up again.
[INFORMATION & ASSISTANCE SYNC IN PROGRESS 78%]
A brass-tubed and copper-panelled automaton pattered out on small stilts, turning around to close the bathroom door with its short pincer-like graspers. After doing so, it appeared to retract all its limbs, before simply rolling up into a ball and headed towards one of the stone walls near the front door.
Delphina watched as one of the flagstones sank inward and slid to one side, revealing a delicate, patterned brass grate underneath. The automaton rolled itself onto the grate and dropped out of sight as the grate moved down deeper. The flagstone then slid back and up into place.
After blinking slowly as she processed what had just happened, Delphina once again looked towards the new system panel.
[(ʘ‿ʘ)]
"Oh no, it's got a personality."