Fix My Clothes!

[Kyo]

Kyo sighed as she found herself wandering through the streets of The Bazaar yet again. She’d been here just a little over a month ago looking for supplies and now she was here again needing yet more things. If it hadn’t been for her run in with Jared she wouldn’t need to be spending her money on such trivial things right now. She needed to make two stops today as well, she had to get her ninja-gi fixed because it was torn, and she also had to find a smithy to mend the bend in her shuriken. The damn thing couldn’t fly straight when one of the points was bent inwards.

Moving through the crowds of people, the ninja eventually stopped at a store filled with mannequins in the front windows and material everywhere. This was most likely the tailor’s shop and the most likely place she could get her Gi mended, if it could be mended at all. She’d rather not have to get a new one from any place other than her own clan. After all there were hidden pockets all over this thing and it was custom made to fit her perfectly, reduce noise and visibility. She doubted some Coronian tailor could make such a thing without screwing up.

Inside the shop, Kyo found herself in a rather large place despite the small window front. There were piles of material and different coloured cloth all over the place. Some of it seemed quite organized while other piles had a haphazard appear to it. She proved this theory correct when she brushed her fingers across one of the rolls of material only to have nearly the entire pile collapse, some of which fell on to the floor. Someone really needed to organize their shop a little better. Just as long as they could get things done though, she didn’t care.

Now, just where was that shopkeeper? That racket of falling material must have attracted someone attention.

[AdventWings]

No sooner had the assassin began complaining to herself, a series of noise caused by cascading wooden clothes hangers and coat stands clattered noisily from the back of the store.

"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!" A small, plaintive echoed quietly in the stillness of morning light, shortly followed by the appearance of a lanky sharp-eye man with a distinctively waxy black beard. Shaking what appeared to be a tail of loose colorful threads from his shoulder, the old tailor put a small pair of glasses upon the tiny bridge of his nose... before looking up at his customer.

"Hello." He spoke with a bit of an accent reminiscing of someone not quite used to the common language in Corone. "What can I do for you?"

Believe it or not, he was this store's proprietor.

[Kyo]

Kyo blinked a few times as she looked down at the small man that appeared from the mess of this place. She wasn’t even entirely sure where he had come from, all she knew was a few things seemed to move around with a bit of a racket, and then whammy he was there.

“Well… umm, I need to get my ninja-gi fixed.”

Slipping her rucksack from her shoulders, Kyo undid the straps and quickly began rummaging around inside. Within a few seconds she pulled out a pure black ninja-gi that had a few clean cuts along the back and the arms of it. Sadly they were from her own sword and not that of an enemy’s, but nonetheless, they would make almost any mission rather difficult since she wouldn’t be able to completely conceal herself in darkness.

“I just need to get these clean tears in the material fixed.” She told him as she extended the piece of material towards him.

[AdventWings]

Yang Lhou peered at the tear on Kyo's fabric attentively and back up at the customer.

The Quan tailor rubbed the cloth between his fingers and took a whiff of its scent, nodding decidedly after he was able to confirm what type of thread to use.

Looking up to meet the eyes of his customer, he held up three fingers and announced his price. His voice the characteristic sharp, raspy voice of an alien in Corone.

"Thirty Crowns. Deal or no?"

[Kyo]

Kyo had no idea why he decided to smell her clothing of all things, it was just a little creepy, but she decided to say nothing about it. Some tailors were a bit on the eccentric and this short little fellow certainly appeared to be one of them, so who was she to judge if he wanted to…smell her clothing. She just hoped it didn’t smell bad, after all she had done quite a few missions in that gi and though it had been washed, well…still.

His voice was quite strange and covered in an accent she had never heard before and his words confused her a bit.

“Umm, crowns? I don’t have crowns…but I’ll gladly pay you in Gold.”

Perhaps he had made some kind of mistake, at least the last time she had checked, gold was the currency of Althanas. Pretty much every region used them though some of the regions had their own currency as well. Still, her gold should be good enough here.

[AdventWings]

Yang raised an eyebrow but resumed his otherwise sharp composture afterwards. The customer did look to be as foreign in this land as he was... but to have not heard of the Coronian Crown was a bit of a stretch in his mind. After all, they were in Corone to begin with.

"Thirty gold will do, too."

The tailor wasted no time and headed towards his work table, overladen with fine fabric and a gigantic pillow of needles. Nimble fingers flit across a set of spools, drawing dark threads into the sewing needle's eye in one hand while his other snipped away at a length of cloth. In an almost frightening display of ambidexterity and multi-tasking, the tiny Quan went to work sewing the fabric into Kyo's ripped robe.

It took him almost less than ten minutes to catch all the small tears that needed only be sewn together as well as some of the larger holes where a cut of fabric was layered underneath. The man paid careful attention trimming the cloth underneath and reinforcing the seams, although the overall quality was no match for a custom-tailored outfit.

More or less, it would serve to work well until a new one could be acquired.

"Here you is." He announced and held out the folded robe to his customer. "Thirty gold coins, total payment. You have, yes?"

[Kyo]

Kyo watched him with work amazement colouring her every expression. He may not really look like much of anything—and he may be on the extremely short side—but he was quite good with his hands once there was a needle and some thread in them. Amazing really, the rips and tears in her gi were repaired with barely a noticeable mark, at least not one that she would complain about. For a little while she was worried she would have to buy a completely new outfit, but her gi had been custom made for her in her clan and she’d rather not lose it, especially this early into her journey. Plus, new clothes cost money and that was something she was currently lacking a bit of.

When he finished and asked for his payment the ninja smiled and reached into the inside of her travelling gi and pulled out a simple black pouch. Opening it, she counted out thirty gold and laid them in the man’s hand then took the proffered garment from him, taking a closer look at his stitch work. Perfect, she could really only tell the difference between the original material and this new one because she knew where the rips had been. Anyone else would probably not even notice the difference. This would hold up nicely until she had the time to replace it.

“Thank you.” Kyo said to him with a rather friendly smile.

Doing her best to avoid the mess of his shop once more, the ninja made her way to the door and exited, taking herself back out into the hustle and bustle of the busy Corone market.


(Would you like me to continue in this thread to get my shuriken fixed, or make a new one?)

[AdventWings]

((No need to make a new one, Kyo. Just write into your next post the next shop you intend to visit. I recommend The Akashiman smithy. [/shamelessplug]))

Yang nodded happily through tiny slit eyes and a wide pointy grin.

"Xia xia. See you again."

The tiny Quan tailor then disappeared back into his shop, the only signs left of him being the characteristic rummaging and falling stacks of clothes in the back of the room... And his high-pitched wails of dismay.

[Kyo]

The streets of The Bazaar were filled with people just like any other day. The smell of various kinds of exotic and local foods filled the air and one could barely hear themselves think above the noise of everyone else’s voice. She could catch pieces of conversation as she passed by crowds of humans, elves, dwarves and even a few other races she could barely guess at given how quick they moved through here. They all moved about with the singular purpose of shopping in mind. Whether it was to frivolously spend their money or find something truly worthwhile she didn’t know, but she did know what she was after.

A few time she found herself stopping at a stall to look at what wares were offered and more than once she felt the lecherous and greedy eye of the merchant crawl upon her as if sizing her up. Most of the weapons they offered seemed cheap and shoddy though, like hey were made with haste and would break rather easily in any normal battle. Nothing that she could use. She needed quality wares, she needed to be able to trust her swords and her shuriken when the time came. But she wasn’t really looking for anything new, no she just wanted to get something fixed. How in the world throwing her shuriken into a wooden wall had bent it was beyond her, but the damage was done and now it needed to be repaired.

Moving through the crowds, a particular sign caught her eyes. The shop seemed slightly out of place amongst all the gaudy and overly dressed up storefronts that tried to beckon in whomever they could. But when one was shopping for a smithy, did they really want one who spent more time decorating than working?

Approaching the red-bricked building with the worn wooden door and the sign painted in both Common and Akashiman.

An Akashiman smithy, perfect.

Surely someone who was trained within her home region would know how to properly fix a shuriken, much better than any of these Corone smithies could too. Wrapping her fingers around the cool, brass handle of the door, the ninja pulled it open and entered the shop. Immediately she could smell the coal fire and feel the heat that somehow seemed trap within the place. There was a taste of metal in the air and though the place was not disgusting, it was not virtually clean either, but it looked in good condition and relatively well managed.

“Excuse me, may I speak to the proprietor?”

[AdventWings]

Klank Klank Klank...

The ring of metal against metal echoed from the back of the smithy, followed by the sizzle of boiling water as the bar of steel became submerged. Moments later, the large blacksmith appeared at the front of his shop with soot still coated to his sweat-streaked arms.

"Hello, how may I help you?" Jirou spoke in fluent Tradespeak.

The southern Akashiman blacksmith moved to the store counter and stood there, placing his hands gently on the weathered top as the fiery heat of the forge slowly dwindled with the closing door.

[Kyo]

Kyo smiled rather politely at the man, it was nice to see someone familiar with her neck of the world out here in Corone. And he was a brute of a man too, covered in soot and packed with muscles underneath that, most likely from working with metal for so much of his life.

“I just need something rather simple…” She said to the man.

Reaching for a pouch along her belt, she slipped her fingers inside and quickly produced the bent shuriken. It was easy to find it considering the perfect condition of the others. The corner of it that had sliced into the wooden frame had been bent, just enough to throw the trajectory off should she actually use it. It was worthless unless she could get it fixed and hopefully that would just be something rather simple and inexpensive to do.

“I need this shuriken fixed, the edge was bent so it won’t fly properly now.”

She placed the shuriken down on the worn counter, her eyes momentarily glancing across the calloused and work worn hands of the smithy.

[AdventWings]

Shuriken, huh...?

It had been a while - a very long while at that - since he had seen one after moving out from his tiny forge that was his old home back in southern Akashima. He also knew of the secrecy within the ninja clans that many people often speak of only in hushed rumors. Although such a weapon could be bought relatively openly within the Coronian Bazaar, not many chose to openly display them. After all, the surprise factor was a ninja's greatest weapon.

"Hmm... I see." The blacksmith rubbed his chin as he looked over the bent piece of metal. "Personally, I'd rather you buy a new one. but since it's not in such a bad condition, I'll see if I can't straighten it out for you. In return, I'll ask you for 10 Crowns for the labor. Is that good?"

Jirou remembered hearing that agents of the ninja clan normally would not retrieve their shuriken, damaged or not. Perhaps this customer was not really a ninja in disguise...

[Kyo]

Kyo paused as she contemplated his words. The damage on the shuriken wasn’t that great. It had merely hit the wooden panel at the wrong angle and somehow it had bent. She wasn’t quite sure how the wood had enough strength to bend steel, but thinking about it wasn’t going to get the thing fixed. The ninja just wanted it in working order in case she needed it.

“I would prefer if you could fix it, however if it’s going to affect the trajectory then I suppose I will have to buy a new one. A shuriken that cannot fly straight is no good to anyone.” And completely worthless to a ninja. And there was that damn crown currency again. Since the tailor had accepted her gold, she supposed that they were roughly the same thing and that perhaps it was just called something different here. “But yes, if you can fix it, 10 Crown is fine.”

[AdventWings]

Jirou nodded understandably. A malfunctioning weapon was no good to anyone, not even the enemy. As the customer seemed not quite ready to part with her ware just yet, the Akashiman blacksmith had not many options but to comply to her wishes.

"Understood. Please give me about half an hour."

As the midday sunlight filtered into the store, the sound of hammer working against the anvil could be heard reverberating in the air. It was the only noise to break the tranquility, paused in between by the sound of hissing steam.

Half an hour crawled by in relative calm, the streets outside bearing the day's only chaotic motion of feet, heads and eyes. The blacksmith emerged, the shuriken within a grimy little towel which he continued to wipe the metallic surface.

"Here you go." He announced, setting it down on the counter for Kyo to see. Jirou had done his best in straightening the bend, now just as straight as it had been, at the sacrifice of some strength in the blade.

"I can only do this so many times." He sighed and sat down on the stool behind the counter, leaning against his elbow in exhaustion. "And after a while, it'll eventually break. If you take care not to put too much stress into it, it'll last for a while."

The man had finished his job - all that was left now would be his pay.

[Kyo]

The ninja took the offered shuriken and spun it between her fingers. It felt no different than it had before. The weight was still perfect and it was straight as if it had just been made, but she took the words of the blacksmith to heart. If she used it too heavily, it would either bend again or it would break, it was after all only made of steel and rather thin.

“Thank you.”

The next time it bent, she was probably just going to discard it or any of her other weapons that did such a thing. The only reason she hadn’t in the first place was that she had been told to leave no trace, and that meant no weapons. So she’d retrieved the shuriken from the wall.

Placing the weapon back within the pouch on her belt, the ninja reached into her gi and produced a leather bag that held her gold. Pulling open the strings, she grabbed 10 of the golden pieces and then laid them on the counter, and then she placed the pouch back within her gi. Giving the blacksmith a polite bow and thanking him in tradition Akashiman, she turned to leave.

[AdventWings]

Bowing after he accepted the golden coins, Jirou watched silently as a member of the secretive clan disappeared out the door.

"Please come again." He nodded, losing sight of her in the crowd. With a wistful sigh, the blacksmith returned to the forge and resumed working on the rapier he had received many months before. He had a feeling someone was going to need it and he wanted to make sure to have the wares ready for the sale.

((Transaction Complete.

Kyo loses a total of 40 GP and received the following services in return:

- Damaged gi repaired (Condition restored to Very Good)
- Damaged shuriken repaired (Condition restored to Good)

Kyo receives 100 EXP for good IC interactions.

Please come again!))