Actually, Pylaemenes hated shopping.

However, he wasn't going to complain. For one thing, he was with Nadira, with who he was very deeply in love. For another, she was going to pay for his new outfit. He rather wished it were not the case, though. It seemed so decidedly unfavorable a situation. He had no wish for her to go about showering him with gifts. He was not ungrateful - quite the opposite, in fact. It was his avowed intent to repay her upon accumulating enough of the rewards of Plutus to settle the bill. He only hoped that she wasn't aiming for anything particularly expensive.

She was. At least, it was expensive in Pylaemenes's opinion. He wasn't particularly parsimonious, but he was rather frugal all the same.

"What exactly do you have in mind for me?" he asked, looking about as she sifted through a few wares laid out on tables in front of a tailor's shop.

"Oh, something slinky and revealing, I expect," she said with a giggle.

"I don't need much,” he continued. “I’m not particularly picky. I am never ostentatious. Something reserved and inexpensive is exactly what would suit me. I don’t need anything more than that… Don’t squander your denarii on me, dearest.”

“Oh, Py,” Nadira cooed, “you’ve become a new man. You must find clothing befitting your new station in life."

Pylaemenes scarcely wished to remind her that this new station of his amounted to being the tutor to a bunch of courtesans. On the other hand, of course, she was right... He was now a freedman, if a rather poor one. Ah well, things would soon change, he supposed...or hoped, rather.

He muttered a bit to himself as she became absorbed in picking through various offered materials, and all too often became sidetracked when noticing something designed for her sex rather than his. However, after a short while, she had found something which she thought was suitable enough for him. He had little opinion on the matter, bowing before her obviously superior sense of taste.

She herded Pylaemenes closer so as she could judge the material against him, which, it must be noted, was most likely the logical thing to do... The tutor didn't seem to be quite so expert in such matters, losing interest in the shopping experience rather quickly and staring a bit at the ground and then at Nadira again.

She sighed.

"You can sit for a while if you'd prefer. I won't be too long, dear."

"Well..." he began, though in truth he was not really sure where this word would take him. He resigned to sitting nearby, crossing his arms, and watching her in action.

He continued at this for some time, and began to wonder if Nadira would ever pry herself away from the clothing stands. It seemed unlikely, and so he found himself gradually getting tired of simply sitting about. Therefore, as waiting men are wont to do, he stood up and began to traipse about.

His traipsing didn't take him far at all. He just walked through an alley and stood for a bit with his back against the cool wall, looking up at the birds prancing about on the rooftops. They seemed a cheerful lot, but then, they didn't have to go shopping, did they? They hadn't the luxury of selecting better and brighter plumage, nor would they have been include to do so at all anyway.

Someone was making very nasty exclamations...

At least, so it sounded at first to Pylaemenes. He looked down the alleyway in the direction of the noise, and thought it most likely the best option to just scurry away... No doubt he would have preferred to anyway, and he'd have been right to. However, when somebody came sliding out of a window into the alley, portions of his innards flopping mournfully out of his gut, it was a bit hard to peel the eyes away.

The tutor cringed a little and made some faces that couldn't be immediately construed as either charitable or compassionate. He was simply afraid that his breakfast was returning, and so he turned away and buried his face against the wall, clutching his stomach, as the unfortunate screaming chap stopped his twitching and simply slumped out onto the pavement.

It gradually occurred to Pylaemenes that the wisest course of action would be to run like Hades. However, his curiosity was also nagging him, so he returned his head slightly to take in the grisly scene.

He rather wish he hadn't.

At any rate, he backed away slightly and gradually heard calling from behind him. Nadira seemed to have decided to follow him, his new suit in hand, and was rapidly advancing, apparently unconscious of the nasty-looking dead chap.

The tutor was not pleased. Was there no escaping this sudden intrusion into his otherwise quiet life of...sex and violence?