"It's a cheap and easy to acquire piece of armor. People buy and use whatever they can to give themselves stat boosts." Rona informs me.
"Won't it be hard to play my lute with gloves on?" I ask, coming to that obvious realization.
"We will get you some fingerless gloves then." Jake states very matter of factly.
"I am willing to try." I say as I allow myself to be led over to shelves and displays with gloves.
"I guess for these measurement is less important?" I ask.
"Obviously. Now then, let's have you try some on!" Rona says and hands me a pair. They aren't fingerless. They feel as though they are made from a material that mimics silk. I think silk gloves would be a bit too expensive to sell here. Or perhaps not? I am not sure how pricing works in the Commoner District.
I slide the gloves over my hands and up my arms. They pull all the way up my arms, which feels a little awkward. They are comfortable but awkward at the same time, as they are almost touching inside my armpits. I shake my head and remove them, setting them back down.
"How about something fuzzy!" Jake says, passing my what look to be fur mittens. How am I supposed to fight in mittens? Maybe mages can? I pull them on anyway and flash my hands in different positions while making ridiculous faces. I get all three of us laughing once again before I slide them off and put them back. It seems as though these two laugh easily.
Shimmer pops his head out at the sound, and makes his way down my arm. Maybe he was able to ignore it a few times, but has gotten curious. He looks around the room, blinks slowly a few times, and let's out a cute little yawn.
"Babies do need a lot of sleep." Cookie says, looking at him. "Or maybe he feels extra tired because you feel tired. Are you feeling tired?" Cookie asks me.
"Maybe a teeny tiny bit, but I am still good to go." I say brightly. I don't want anyone to have less fun.
Cookie nods to me. Glimmer nuzzles under my neck a few times, before climbing back onto the back of my neck.
"Now that the cuteness break is over, how do the gloves feel?" Rona asks me.
"They are soft, but completely impractical." I say.
"Fair enough. I just wanted to see someone try them on." Jake admits. Rona gently elbows him in the side.
I look around the shelves myself to see what kinds of gloves there are. There are long gloves, soft gloves and stiff gloves. I need my hands to be able to move. Do they have a combination glove? I wonder.
I move past gloves that go over fingers and move into the fingerless section. Some of them look more like bracelettes than they do gloves. I pick some up and put them on anyways. I turn my wrists this way and that to see how I like them. I shake my head. They slide around a bit. I try on some fingerless cloth gloves. Warm, but wrong. I then see them and they look wonderful. I don't know what the material is but it looks like a combination between silky cloth and leather.
"Did you find something?" Rona asks.
"I might have." I say and slide the gloves on.
The gloves go up between my wrists and my elbows. It feels as though they are enchanted to stay right in place. I love the way that they look and feel. They are glossy and black with a white design of flowers, though I am unsure the kind. The fabric part is a silvery grey color. Altogether lovely. The gloves are missing the finger are and have a soft strap that fits between the pointer finger and thumb.
"Yes, yes I have. These gloves are wonderful." I tell them, and we put them with the other things that I am going to be purchasing.
"Okay, we have boots, we have gloves. What next?" I ask.
"I say that we look at Bottom Armor." Rona says to me, taking my hand in hers and pulling me along.
"So am I supposed to wear these over my every dya clothes?" I ask.
"Some people do, but most people just wear the armor on it's own. Keeps you from having to buy too many new clothes." Jake tells me. "I know from experience." he says, a bit of color coming into his cheeks. He flashes me a bright grin showing off pointed canines. Not vampire like, or animal like. Just longer than other people's. They give him a mischeivious look.
"That is good for me to know. I guess I am going to want to lean towards supple leather pants then." I say.
"Well, let's have you take a look. You might be surprised." Rona tells me.
I look around the bottom armor section and freeze in place by some of what I see. I see what looks like metal undergarments. I see short skirts, and things that look like dresses. I guess those could go either with tops or bottoms. I see what looks like leggings, then pants of different metals. I just stand there and stare. Again, how can metal be considered light armor? Is it simply the type of metal they use? Maybe items just have a light metal outer-layer?
"Well now, don't you want to model some of these for us?" Jake says with a sly grin.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
"Have to say I agree. We have to see how they fit after all." Rona says and pulls me to a dressing room.
"We will just hand you armor pieces to try on from there." Rona tells me. I stand in a changing room, once again feeling uncomfortable. At least I'm not in my underwear yet.
"Have her try these on!" I hear Jake shout.
"She will be too embarassed in that!" Rona comments back.
"I'm sure she will, but it gives impressively good defense."
I stand there, nervous about what I am about to be handed.
"I apologize for this, but in this town and the nearby ones, the less it looks like you are wearing the better your armor is. Apparently it is to trick monsters into thinking that you are more vulnerable than you are."
I take the armor being handed to me and yelp in surprise. It is that metal looking undergarment set. It feels heavy in my hands. I let out a small sigh and slip out of my clothes, pulling the metal undergarments on over my normal ones. I take a deep breath and step out of the changing room, feeling as though I am going to die of embarassement. I expect Jake and Rona to laugh, but they don't. I see them looking me over, checking the fit.
"You have an impressively good body." Rona tells me. My blush deepens. "This is good defense. How do you feel in it though?" I am asked.
"It is heavy and I feel a bit too exposed." I admit.
"Sadly you may always feel a little bit exposed." Jake says and gives me a sympathetic look.
"Too heavy though?" Rona asks.
"Yes. I don't think I want to try any more metal armor if possible." I say. "It just isn't light armor in my head."
"I have always found that strange too! Although I think it is just a light coat of the lightest metal over top of thick leather." Jake explains.
"Thanks for the explanation. Either way though, no metal for me please."
"Okay, that's fine." Rona says.
"Go ahead back into your changing room. I'll bring you some leather and cloth of similar styles."
I allow myself to be put through the embarassement of putting on more armor of a similar style. At least one was almost shorts on the bottom. Some of them are comfortable enough, but they feel too... Not me I suppose?
"I don't think that this style is going to work for me." I admit.
"Okay. Let's try something else than." Rona says. I change out of the last set that I was given and hand them back over. I pull my shirt back on and wait to be given pants.
"Here, try these." they say, handing me some cloth pants. I slip them on. They are a bright purple color with red roses on them. They feel comfortable, but I don't feel protected.
I look in the mirror. I look ridiculous. I'm sure there is someone that would look good in these pants, but that someone isn't me. I model them anyways.
"Yeah, I don't think that is your style." Jake says, wincing a bit.
"Hey, you two are the ones that are picking these out. Don't you wince at me." I say, crossing my arms accross my chest."
"Okay. None of those then. Hmm." Rona says in contemplation.
I go back into the changing room and wait.
"Here, we grabbed you a few this time." Rona says. I accept the bottoms from her. I begin with a sturdy looking leather pair. I don't feel that they are right, but I go out of the room anyways to model them.
"Almost, but still no. Let's not do anymore stiff leather." Rona says. Jake nods in agreement with her.
"Yeah, I suppose that makes enough sense." I say. "A bard has to be rather nimble after all."
"I am going to bring you some of the dresses. You may be surprised at how protected they make you feel." I give a small nod and go back to trying on armor.
I pull on some soft silky ones and shake me head. I go out and model them as I have been doing for every article of armor thus far. They both shake their heads. I look down at the last pair of pants armor left. There is also a pair that are shorts that go to mid thigh. They feel supple, yet sturdy. I look at myself in the mirror, turning at different angles to see how they look. I nod. I will keep this pair. They will go well with the higher boots I think.
I step out of the changing room to approving nods.
"Yes! That looks great on you. How do you feel?" Jake asks. Rona shoots him a look. "What I can't say she looks great? I'm not coming on to her, that armor just fits appropriately and seems to go with her body type."
Rona let's out a small sigh of acceptance.
"I'll grab those from you when you try on the next pair." I nod once again. Have I turned in to some sort of toy whose head bobbles to and fro?
I slip out of the shorts and pull on the last pair that I have. They are supple like the shorts. I slide them on. Because of the material I feel as though they should stick and be hard to pull on, but they aren't at all.
"I like these ones too." I say.
"I agree." Rona says. "Can you move well in them?" she asks me.
I nod. I stretch out to show her. Reach up, twist, touch my toes, lunge, and I do a back bend just for fun before kicking my legs up and over to land on my feet. I taught myself to do this and more as I like feeling my body in motion.
"Now for some tops!" Rona says cheerfully. I decide not to wait in the changing room, but instead let them load my arms up. I shake my head to some, causing a few pouts, but I stand firm. I may not know what I want, but I know that I don't want it to be any form of metal, as we already discussed. I'm sure they just wanted me to try those on for fun. I do however allow then to put in some furry stuff. And some dresses as Rona said she wanted me to try some of those on. We grabbed some of many different styles.
I make my way back into the changing room and begin with the ones that look closer to normal shirts. I pull on a long sleeves cloth piece. I immediately begin to feel a bit warm. Or maybe the armor is rejecting me. I have heard that can happen. Some sorts of armor will reject a person or Class. I always thought that was some sort of folk tale.
I try on the other long sleeved ones and feel that same discomfort from them as well.
'System, what is this feeling? Do I just not like these?'
'So it partially comes down to people not wanting others to look down on their creations by allowing Bards to wear them.'
<....Perhaps....>
'How stupid.'
'Well thanks for the information.'
"Rona, can you take these?" I ask her, handing all of the long sleeves to her. She lifts and eyebrow but doesn't say anything.
"I had an odd reaction to them. I apologize". I say.
"That's okay. I don't even want to know why as I can hazard a guess." Jake says, running his fingers through his hair. "People just not appreciating one of the coolest Classes." I hear him muttering under his breath.
I give him a small smile and head back into the changing room, looking at my reduced pile of Top Armor. I feel a wave of exhaustion run through me, but it fades away quickly.
I pull on a short sleeves cloth shirt. It doesn't fit right. I show it off anyways and we all agree that it looks a bit silly. It is a silky blut top with a floral print all over it. Again, someone might like this, but that someone is not me.
I try on another silkier top and it also doesn't fit the way I want it to, and I don't feel protected. Next, I try on a supple leather top with a soft inner lining. It hardly has any sleeves to speak of. It is a nice, deep brown color and fits like a dream.
"I have to get this one." I say, and show off the top.
"Ohhh I do like that!" Rona says, looking me up and down. "It hugs you nicely. Do you feel a sense of protection?" she asks.
"I am feeling much less vulnerable than in the other items of clothing I have tried thus far." I say.
"You should try on the armor that looks like a dress now." Rona says encouragingly. I nod.
I walk into the room and strip off my clothing once again and I pull on one of the dresses. Rona didn't grab me very many so it seems that she genuinely feels as though these will be good for me.
I slip once of them over my head. It is short and looks as though you should be able to see through it, though you can't. It is shimmery and white. There are no sleeves but fits snugly in place around my bust, I spin around and feel the dress move with me. For some reason I do actually feel protected in it. As I spin I see a purple ribbon on the back. It makes it look even nicer. I want this just because I want it.
I walk about and show off the dress armor.
"Well?" Rona asks, awaiting my answer.
"I love it." I admit.
"Even though it is a bit revealing?" she asks.
"Yes. Even then." I say, giving a shy little smile.
"Good! And it goes well with your ears and tail. It shimmers different colors in your surroungs too, helping to obscure you a bit. I have a similar one and I like it."
"Do you ever go where there are monsters?" I ask, surprised.
"Of course, there are times that people get stuck before they make it to the auction house because of monsters. I help fight them off." she says. I had no idea that would be part of her job, but it does make sense. Sort of.
"Okay, you have one more to try on I believe." she says. I nod that I do.
I walk back into the changing room, putting the dress with the rest of the Armor to purchase and try on the final dress. The top of the dress crosses across my breasts and leaves part of my stomach exposed. There is also a dip in the back. It is a deep ocean blue and falls to my mid thigh. A bit short, but I can always wear normal leggings on beneath it.
I come out and model the dress.
"Oh my goodness, that is perfect on you!"
"I again feel very protected. I like this one more than the other one that you showed me. I think I will only get this one."
"That sounds reasonable. Anything else to look at?"
"I want a circlet for headgear and a cloak or something?" I ask, uncertain about what kind of outwear armor to, well, wear.
"I might know just the thing."