Tabula Rasa: Adventures In A New World

T-ting...!

“Good. You are finally back.” Thilanea’s voice cuts through her quiet shop, having hardly waited for the door to close behind the barbarian. “Now come along, your outfit is ready.”

Krvavy makes her way past the many mannequins and diverse displays, her long strides quite quickly carrying her past those countless clothes.

The grey-haired tailor opens the door to the same private room as before, ushering Krvavy inside before stepping through herself. “I am sure that you will be happy with what we have made.” The door clicks shut. “And if not, then too bad. We don’t have time to make anything else that will properly fit your body.”

Krvavy raises an eyebrow at Thilanea’s abrasive tone. But she isn’t here for the customer service, so she simply shrugs it off.

Thilanea critically glances at the barbarian’s pelt top and loincloth. “Take those filthy things off already.” She demands, turning away and stepping towards a small countertop.

Shaking her head slightly, Krvavy does what the tailor wants and quickly undresses, sliding the backpack off her shoulders before carelessly dropping her loincloth and top onto the ground.

“Here, put this on first.”

A small bit of white fabric is abruptly tossed across the room, just barely being caught by the barbarian. A faint bit of confusion passes through Krvavy as she looks at the fabric, though it quickly passes as she realizes what it is.

“It’s underwear.” The tailor dryly states. “Nothing special, just some cotton tailored to your form. I made you quite a few pairs, as I will not have you needlessly dirtying the pants we made for you. Now put them on.”

Krvavy tilts her head as she looks at the underwear in her hand. It is... rather oddly shaped. Though, to be fair, it kind of has to be considering how, well, oddly shaped she is. The front is little more than a pouch, the back covers a fair bit more but still looks like it’ll leave most of her ass bare, and the part that clearly is supposed to be tied over her hips is rather narrow.

Not to keep the already impatient tailor waiting any longer, Krvavy lowers the basic garment down between her legs. It takes a little bit of effort to get it in place and tie the sides together while standing, but after a little bit of graceless fumbling she gets the job done.

“How does it feel?”

“It’s a little snug...” The Drakling idly comments, gently tugging on the fabric to make it a little more comfortable around her package. “But that’s probably just because I’m not used to wearing anything... like this.”

Thilanea simply nods her head and holds out a pair of dark leather pants, not saying a word as she lets them dangle in the air.

The corners of Krvavy’s lips curl up into an amused smile as she sees what the tailor made for her. It would seem that Thilanea really took the one request that she made to heart.

“That tail of yours was... rather difficult to work around.” The grey-haired tailor gruffly comments as the Drakling takes those pants off her hands. “It would have been simpler to raise the waist above it, leaving a slit in the back for that thing to fit through, but you wanted your abs left bare...”

The pants are surprisingly easy to step into, sliding effortlessly up Krvavy’s inhuman legs. The waistband just barely makes it halfway over her hips before pressing up against the base of her tail, having been pulled as far up as it’ll go. It leaves a scandalously large amount of her torso exposed, covering less than a hand’s width of flesh above the base of her cock and leaving a good portion of her hips visible above the leather. It even leaves a bit of her ass bare, where cheek transitions into back, though the base of her meaty tail covers most of that gap.

“Pull the laces over your crotch as tight as is comfortable.” Thilanea instructs, her tone fairly gruff yet still rather professional. “Loosening them completely will make it possible for you to access your privates without having to remove those pants, allowing you to relieve yourself if needed.”

A flash of heat fills Krvavy’s face, lingering even after her mind picks up on the fact that this older woman is not implying anything untoward. That she isn’t subtly talking about jerking off. Which... in hindsight... is probably something Krvavy should have done before bathing... She didn’t exactly have time to get off while on the road...

“Here.” The tailor’s mildly bored voice snaps the barbarian from her thoughts. “This will help hold your pants in place.” A thick belt is held out, and is quickly taken.

Krvavy feeds that belt through the various loops around her hips, having a bit of difficulty getting it beneath her tail, before securely buckling it together. Just like her pants, it hangs pretty low in the front. And is even lower at the back.

“And finally, you just need to pull the laces on the sides of your legs as tight as is comfortable.” A bit of impatience makes its way into this older woman’s words as the Drakling does what she is told... perhaps a bit too slowly. “There is a mirror just over there.” Thilanea gestures to the side. “How do you like it?”

Krvavy turns and gives her reflection a good look over.

The dark leather pants cling tightly to her skin, and only her skin. At least for the most part. A little bit of the leather overlaps with her scales, but they are mostly left bare with only the tightly corded laces stretched over them, making it almost look like these pants have a scaly black band stretching down their sides. A band that grows wider and thicker as it trails down her legs.

True to the barbarian’s request, Thilanea made her some pants that cover the absolute bare minimum of her body while still looking presentable and relatively respectable.

But beyond that... these pants are rather plain. They don’t have pockets, or even room for any pockets, and neither are there any additional decorations. At least beyond a single black metal ring that hangs off of each belt loop.

“We used the highest grade Khamar Auroch leather, imported from the Orcish lands from the east.” The older woman idly explains, lacking the enthusiasm to make her spiel sound like a proper sales pitch. “As a result, they should be incredibly durable and resilient. Perfect for an adventurer. That leather is also fairly hydrophobic, meaning that it does not absorb water very well and can be submerged for quite some time before it starts to grow wet. Again, that makes it good for adventuring, though it does make cleaning these pants more difficult. For that I recommend scrubbing with a soft-bristled brush, ideally under hot running water.”

Krvavy nods her head to that as she experiments with moving her legs around. Despite the dark leather being on the thicker side and clinging so tightly to her skin, these pants don’t seem to hamper her movements at all. Guess that is a benefit of having the outer half of her legs left bare with just some flexible laces stretched over them...

“Make sure the band of the underwear is sitting fully beneath the belt.” Thilanea gestures to the barbarian’s left hip, where a tiny bit of that plain cloth is visible. “It will be more comfortable that way. Less chafing.”

“Right.” Krvavy reaches a finger beneath the tight-fitting belt and awkwardly drags the waistband of her underwear into place. Giving herself another look over in the mirror, the Drakling finds her eyes drawn to the rather prominent bulge at her crotch. It looks... a bit too prominent. “Is this, uh, acceptable for a high-class party?”

“Not really.” The grey-haired tailor gruffly replies. “Here.” Without any further explanation, she holds out some sort of flag-like piece of fabric nearly as long as Krvavy’s forearm, from elbow to wrist.

The barbarian raises an eyebrow as she takes the offered thing, looking at it with a bit of confusion. It is rather richly coloured, with a deep verdant green bordered by two slightly concave strips of a lighter jade green along its length. It really does look like some sort of flag or pennant, with one end almost flat across its width and the other ending in three points, the center of which reaches much further out.

“Oh...” Krvavy mutters out as she sees a couple little clasps on the flatter end of the fabric. She knows what this is supposed to be now: it is a loincloth, of sorts. One that is clearly intended to be attached to the metal rings closest to her belt buckle. So that is exactly what she does with it.

“We were originally going to make that red, rather than green, but we didn’t have a shade that properly matched your hair. At least not in that same grade of material.” Thilanea idly comments. “That may have been for the best though. Red is a rather aggressive colour, and these shades of green match your eyes quite well.”

The barbarian looks at the reflection of herself, checking out how she looks with this little decorative loincloth. It is a bit odd, but doesn’t look bad. In fact, the more Krvavy looks at it the more it grows on her. She is used to wearing a loincloth, after all, so it is kind of nice to have that fancy fabric flap there. And it does do a good job at hiding her otherwise obscene bulge. “I like it.”

“Good. Now, for your top.”

The tailor grabs a relatively thick metal ring with large strands of the same green fabric as what makes up that ‘loincloth’ hanging from it, before handing that thing over to the barbarian.

“Put your arms and head through here,” Thilanea gruffly instructs, seeing the confusion plastered across Krvavy’s face. “Lower this part down to your tail. Then pull these up tightly over your breasts and place the ring flat against your chest, just beneath your collarbone. There. Now grab the other two strips and pull them back over your shoulders to behind your neck, then tie them together into a bow. Not a knot. You want to be able to take this top off relatively easily. And don’t worry if your bow doesn’t look good. Your hair will cover it up anyway.”

Krvavy breathes slowly and deeply as she does as she is told, taking a moment to make sure that... top... is sitting snug atop her snowy skin before glancing towards the mirror.

“Hhm...” The barbarian lightly bites the inside of her cheek. Once again, this tailor really fulfilled her request for something that would barely cover her up. Perhaps a bit too well though. It... honestly looks like she is wearing a bikini top more than anything else. “Is this, uh, appropriate to wear to a fancy party...?”

Those wide strips of verdant green fabric cling so tightly to her breasts, leaving the entirety of her cleavage exposed and on display... along with a fair bit of underboob and sideboob. Unlike her new pants, which at least pretend to cover her with their laced sides, this ‘top’ leaves most of her back and a significant portion of her chest completely bare. It does do a good job of covering her nipples though. Not only do they not seem to be in any danger of slipping out, but they also aren’t even visible through the fabric as a bump or anything like that.

“It is perhaps a tad bit revealing for a party at the Countess’ estate,” Thilanea agrees, despite her rather dismissive shrug. “But they shouldn’t turn you away at the gates either.” The older woman lifts her chin, an air of arrogance hanging onto her words. “The materials that went into that top, and your little loincloth as well, are of the highest grade. I will spare you the details, just know that it is composed of a few layers of expensive fabrics weaved together and laden with enchantments. It is a clear show of wealth. If an eccentric one.”

That piques the Drakling’s interest. Her emerald eyes meet the tailor’s gaze, not in the mirror but directly. “What kinds of enchantments are in this thing?”

“Nothing too extraordinary, just the standard selection used for the highest quality clothing.” A tinge of pride can be heard in this professional tailor’s tone, even as she casually downplays her work. “I included enchantments that will help to keep it clean, ones that will greatly increase its durability, and a few that will allow it to mend a minor amount of damage done to it. It is not armour, so do not treat it as such, but don’t worry about it getting a few small rips and tears.”

“Wow that... sounds expensive.”

“It is. Incredibly so. But you aren’t the one paying, and our mutual acquaintance has the money to spare.” A slightly malicious smirk plays at Thilanea’s thin lips, her silver eyes gleaming with a sadistic satisfaction... only for her expression to quickly shift into one of very mild annoyance. “I would’ve loved to have been able to add such enchantments to your pants as well, but I simply do not have the ability to do such work on leather. Nor did I have the time.”

It may be petty of her, but Krvavy can’t help but smile at the thought that Shadow will be spending far more money on this than that hooded figure intended.

“All of the metal in that outfit – the hoops, belt buckle, and the ring of that top – is high-grade Tenebrine steel, and all of it is enchanted as well.” The older woman adds, gently shaking her head. “Though not with anything special, just the standard anti-scrying measures. Anyone with sufficient skill or power will be able to overwhelm them, but you’ll know if that happens. And a word of advice, almost everyone at the party will be wearing something with similar anti-scrying enchantments. Including the servants. So don’t waste your time scrying anyone. That would be seen as incredibly rude and offensive, to put it lightly. It may be enough to justify kicking you out.”

The Drakling simply nods her head as she finds her amusement so swiftly replaced with a degree of anxiety. She honestly hadn’t thought about what would happen if people tried to Inspect her out here. Which feels like a massive oversight on her part. She is honestly extremely lucky that no one has tried to do that yet. Not as far as she knows, at least... Guess that they didn’t want to risk pissing off a big, barely civilized barbarian...?

“Now, one last thing before I send you on your way.” Thilanea pulls a small card out of her pocket, holding it out towards Krvavy. “This is your invitation to the Countess’ party tonight. A courier delivered it a few hours ago. I heavily recommend that you find a room at an inn before heading to the party, if you haven’t done so already.”

“I was planning on doing that, just wanted to have some nicer clothes first. Less chance of them immediately turning me away.” The barbarian idly replies, looking at the invitation in her hand. It is fairly simple, little more than a business card with two seals stamped onto it. “Oh!” Krvavy quickly glances over at the older woman. “One more thing... Can I have you make some more clothes for me? Well, not for me to wear, but... I’ll pay, of course.”

“You want me to make clothing for someone else?” The tailor quite skeptically raises a single eyebrow. “Do you have their measurements?”

“Yeah, kind of.” The Drakling replies, crouching down next to her backpack and quickly rooting through it. “Here...” She pulls a few bundles of ropes out of the bag, holding one of them up and gesturing at it. “I tied some knots as reminders, separating the measurements. This bit is around the wrist, the bit between these knots is for the bicep, here’s the neck, around the chest beneath the arms, waist, hips, ass, upper thigh, lower thigh, ankle... And from that end to here, this pointed rock I jammed through the rope, is the height from head to foot.”

Thilanea slowly breathes out as she listens to that explanation, her silver eyes glancing at the numerous other ropes resting next to the Drakling. She almost looks disgusted by the primitive, and rather unhinged, nature of those measurements.

“I’m not really expecting you to make anything from scratch.” Krvavy reassuringly adds, awkwardly scratching the back of her neck. “You’ll probably just need to do some adjustments to stuff you already have in stock.”

“Alright. I can at least hear you out.” The grey-haired tailor gruffly replies, pulling out her notepad. “What kinds of outfits are you looking to buy?”

“Well...”

The sun is low in the sky as Krvavy makes her way through the spacious and beautiful streets near the center of Raseyne. Manicured trees and shrubs line the road, interspersed with streetlamps that are just flickering to life as the sun falls behind the skyline.

Unlike the other parts of this city, nothing around here is tightly packed together. Most of the buildings aren’t even up against the road, instead having short walls and gates leading into their properties.

Krvavy breathes out in relief as she sees a large stone arch stretch across the road ahead, with no visible buildings beyond it. It looks like she is still on the right path and hasn’t gotten lost. That’s good. She is already a bit late to the party.

The road gently curves to the side as it begins to head up a slightly steeper incline. Expanses of well-maintained grass filled with beautiful flower gardens and plenty of trees stretch out to the sides, giving Krvavy the feeling of walking through a very fancy park.

After less than a minute of passing through the lovely greenery, Krvavy sees what she can only describe as a castle at the end of the road. Not a large one, nor is it something fantastical.

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t beautiful.

The walls stand tall above these trimmed trees, whitewashed into a smooth façade topped with protruding crenellations. As she approaches, Krvavy can make out a body of water hugging the base of those white walls, reaching out in both directions. She would say that it was a moat, if it wasn’t for the fact that it looks more like a large decorative pond, filled with floating plants and numerous little fountains to keep the water flowing.

The road ahead rises up into a partially arched bridge, leading straight over the pond moat and into an open gatehouse bordered by two protruding towers. Standing just inside is a pair of knights wearing shining and polished armour, tall plumes of black feathers rising from their helmets. Their elegant halberds lower, crossing into an x, as Krvavy approaches.

“State your business.” A disciplined voice calls out from beneath one of the helmets.

“I’ve got an invitation to tonight’s party.” The Drakling responds, holding out her card.

The left knight pulls his halberd back, resting it over his shoulder as he turns and marches towards Krvavy. He takes the card and brings it up to his helmet, holding it there for a moment before handing it back to the barbarian. “Follow the path to the main hall.” He orders, returning to his position as the other knight’s halberd is lifted out of the way.

Krvavy simply nods her head as she passes through the gatehouse, raising an eyebrow as she sees what is on the other side. If she thought the area outside of these white walls felt like a fancy park, then the area inside is a gardeners paradise. All around her are magnificent hedges, beautiful flower bushes, gorgeous trimmed trees, and graceful fountains. This feels more like the yard of an expansive mansion, not what she’d expect to see inside of castle walls.

And the building up ahead just reinforces that feeling, as it hardly looks like a fortified keep with its numerous wide windows and its decorative white brickwork. Looking over the beautiful building, Krvavy can see some aspects that point to it having been a proper keep once. Mainly the thick rounded towers that have machicolated balconies just beneath their tall peaked roofs. And the moat that surrounds it all, which also appears to have been turned into a pond.

“Oh? Another guest?”

That rich voice draws the Drakling’s attention across the decorated bridge. Up ahead, standing next to the large and ornate double doors, is an older man. His hair is cut short, going grey with age. Yet despite that, he hardly seems old, standing tall and proud in his horizontally striped vest and fancy black tuxedo, the ‘tails’ of which are clearly visible even as he faces the approaching barbarian.

“Yes.” Krvavy quickly responds, raising her invitation up and holding it out to the very stereotypical looking butler... who feels a little out of place in this more medieval city. Then again... this estate looks fairly renaissance, so...

“Ahh... Zamozhyn’s guest. Haven’t seen him in quite some time. I trust he is doing well?” The well-dressed servant pockets the invitation and turns around before Krvavy has a chance to respond. “If you would follow me, the party is right this way.”

The butler gently pushes open those large and ornate doors, gesturing for the Drakling to follow him inside.