NOVEL FROG Chapter 706 – Clothes Make the Man
“Other than the obvious reasons of modesty and practicality, the attire a person wears could often be used to make statements about themselves. Some of the most obvious examples of this could be seen amongst the clergy that served the various Deities, each of which are typically clad in the colors of the Deity they worship.
In this way, they make use of attire as a declaration of their fealty. The shape of the robe that the clergy wears has been passed down for ages and people are so accustomed to the sight that they are instantly recognizable. This too is another use of attire as a statement, as by wearing such robes the clergy proclaim their identity for all to see.” - From a dissertation by Leigh Wainwrought, Sociology student at the Levain Institute for Higher Learning, circa 687 FP.
“Kino, try this on, see how the fit feels for your ears,” said Aideen as she handed a hooded cloak she just finished working on to Kino.
While needlework and sewing was not something people typically associated with spies and agents, it was something taught to every Death’s Hand operative, for times when they needed to repair their clothing during a mission or to craft suitable clothing to assume a role when purchase was not an option. As such, everyone in the group was familiar with it.
The group had visited a small village within the Clangeddin Empire’s border which happened to primarily cultivate flax for a living. As such, it was not hard for them to get themselves a couple bolts of good quality linen from the village for reasonable prices, as well as threads that matched the shade of the linen they purchased. As for the needles, scissors, and other tools, each member of the group carried their own set with them in their respective storage artifacts.
Originally they thought about getting both black and purple linen, but purple dye was rare and expensive in Alcidea, so they scrapped that plan and settled for only black linen instead. The group then spent their time while they rested for the day that evening to make an outfit for Kino to use when she was assuming her planned secret identity as a vigilante.
Since chances were good that Kino wouldn’t stay her hand against people that deserved it, they all felt that choosing the colors of Tohrmut was most suitable. After all, it was most fitting for a bringer of death to clad themselves in the colors of the Deity of Death. Even assassins in both Alcidea and Ur-Teros often clothed themselves the same way, both out of practical reasons or otherwise.
What the group had been busy making was an outfit tailored to Kino that looked a size or two larger, yet had structural supports within so that for an outside observer, it would be difficult to tell whether it was the right size for its wearer or not. At a glance it would be all too easy to mistake the larger size as just the way the cut of the cloth fell, which would give the illusion of volume to the too-large outfit.
In such a way it would be difficult for a bystander to accurately guess the size of the person wearing the clothing. In the same way, the loose fit did away with any bodily definition that could be glimpsed through the shape of the cloth, which made it impossible to tell if it was worn by a man or a woman. Kino’s already naturally slender build helped matters further in that case, since it would have been difficult to achieve such an effect had she been of a buxom build instead.
The hooded cape Aideen worked on was similar. The hood had slots where Kino could hide her ears inside without folding them too uncomfortably, and the ears would also provide further support for the hood that made her look as if she was taller than she actually was. The mask they made to match as part of the hood had a simple enchantment that rendered any voice that went through it into an indistinct, nondescript voice, though if Kino wanted to, she had a good enough range of voice to speak in such a tone herself.
As such the enchantment was more to save her the trouble than anything.
Similarly, the cloak was voluminous and billowing, wide enough to fully cover her figure if needed, and with more than enough room to hide her tail by pressing it against her back in a way that wouldn’t be noticeable from the outside. With some pieces of rigid support, Aideen instead made it look as if Kino was carrying some weapons on her back if she was wearing the cloak, instead of using it to hide her tail.
“Feels pretty nice and snug,” said Kino as she put on the hooded cloak, wiggling a bit to fit better into the piece of clothing as she was still unused to wearing her current set of all-black outfit. “The slots for my ears are just the right size, quite comfortable too,” she added before the rest of her hood moved on its own to cover most of the top half of her face from sight, her ears resting nearly flat against her hair inside the slots made for them in the hood. “Yeah, it works neatly.”
“Glad to hear,” replied Aideen with a satisfied nod as she looked over Kino’s figure. If Kino was to raise her mask, she would be completely unrecognizable unless someone was close enough to her to the point that they’d recognize her just from her eyes alone. “Might want to get something to disguise your eyes when we have the chance. They’re pretty recognizable.”
“Fair enough. The outfit’s nice and comfortable so far, moves well, too, though it will take some getting used to for me to not use my claws,” noted Kino. The gloves and boots of her outfit were fully enclosed, so using her claws were out of the question. It was on purpose since showing her claws would be a big hint to her identity after all. “I can work with it, though.”
