Aeric worked on his design, sketching some more ideas for the fashion show while he was absentmindedly checking numbers and calculating how much material he would need. Xii nudged him and he turned to look at his girlfriend. She cocked her head and her hair framed her face. He really did like her short-ish bob-cut, even if it was nowhere as neat as the words made it sound. He shook his head, “What?”

“I asked if you’re getting bored again because of the lack of custom orders.”

He smiled at her, “I wanna grow some more, the fashion show has been postponed so I’ll leave those outfits till I’m a higher level. I’m kinda hoping to reach at least level thirty before you leave. Maybe I can manage level forty when you come back.”

She laughed and draped herself over his shoulder, “Well having you catch up to my level would be fun. If I reach fifty in this expedition and you reach forty by the time I’m back…” She purred and rubbed her cheek against his, “We’ll be a total power couple by the end of the year. Both of us might be exquisite by that time.”

Aeric smirked, “Am I right to assume that with the reputation comes both a certain amount of challenges as well as safety?”

“Well, very few people would want to piss off someone above level fifty, as even the non-combatants tend to be dangerous. Even if that’s usually because of connections or clients who are more than willing to take out someone to do them a favor or in return for some of their work. So attacking two exquisites? Very few people are that suicidal.”

“I guess that’s as good a goal as any, plus in our case, it would be three exquisites. Ursmir is basically our half-brother or something.”

She laughed, “That’s true, but if you’re looking for more custom work. Maybe you should approach some customers?”

Aeric blinked and tilted his head, “You know, I hadn’t even thought about that. Mostly I figured people who wanted some of my work would come to me, I never actually thought about marketing myself or advertising. Other than the whole fashion show idea.”

He tapped his chin and leaned back, “I’m not sure what I want to work on next though, the last couple works were… Okay. But I want to make something of quality like with Irma, that piece was special. It felt… complete.”

She hummed and wrapped her arms over his chest, “I think I know the feeling, when you did something you are sure is your absolute limit at the moment. Perhaps even more than you thought you were capable of making. When you know it’s the best you could do with your current level and skills and are proud of what you made and accomplished.”

“Something like that. I feel a bit like it was a masterpiece. Even if it sounds arrogant because I know I’m not a master tailor. Not even near it yet. It’s easily the piece I’m most proud of so far. But yea I need more work.”

“Then It’s a good thing I come bearing work isn’t it.”

Aeric turned towards the familiar voice and saw Grant’s sister… he’d have to admit he forgot her name. The girl smirked when she saw his face, “My name’s Reina, in case you forgot. You have that whole, oh shit I forgot her name expression.”

Xii’s eyes flicked to his face and she chuckled, “He really does have an expressive face doesn’t he.”

Reina grinned, “He really does, and I see the rumors are true. You two are obnoxiously cute and physical.”

Xii just slumped all over Aeric, letting him bear her admittedly meager weight and cuddling close. “It’s fresh love, what can I say. He brings out the cuddler in me.”

Reina laughed and walked up to them, “Well I’m not here just for gossip and banter, although I won’t deny enjoying both. I wanted to make some custom orders, I did hear things have been rather quiet over here on that front. Grant mentioned you complaining about it a couple times.”

Aeric flushed a little and the other girls chuckled, Xii merely smirking as she motioned for Reina to continue. “Well while we may not have much in the way of funds but I do think you’d enjoy working with us. I’m part of a theatre group and we are in dire need of some good costumes. We aren’t that popular or well known.” She grinned and leaned forward, “Yet.” She added as she stared at them challengingly.

Aeric laughed, “Building things up from the bottom is part of the fun, a big part in my opinion. But a theatre group huh? I had no idea you were into drama, what kind of theatre do you guys run? What kind of shows?”

“Well first off, the proper term is a play when referring to theatres. As for our preferred genre, it’s tragedy. We do some comedy and we do enjoy our satire. But yea, mostly it’s tragedy.”

“Learn something new each day. So what kind of play are you putting up and what costumes do you need? I’m automatically imagining some princely doublets, a couple of fancy dresses and the like.”

“Well we do need some noble-looking stuff, but what we need most at the moment are an absolutely stunning wedding dress for the character ‘Princess of the Misty Lands’ and an outfit for ‘Argog the Bardbarian’”

Aeric blinked, “Did you just say the Bardbarian?”

She smirked and folded her arms, her purple hair shifting as she cocked her head. “Yup.”

“Is he exactly as he sounds like?”

“If you’re thinking of an idiot barbarian who decided he was a good singer then yeah, probably.”

“Is he marrying the princess?”

Reina snorted, “I certainly hope not, she can do much better. Also different plays, the bardbarian is the satire’s main character and the misty princess is for a tragic play. The costumes will need to reflect the kind of play it is. For the princess I’m hoping you can make an actually gorgeous wedding dress, we can’t give you twenty gold or so for the thing but we don’t need high rarity. We simply need it to capture the eyes, something visually stunning but not necessarily expensive.”

Aeric chuckled, “So you need something that’s beautiful but you can’t afford something you’d absolutely love because the budget doesn’t have the room.”

Reina shuffled her feet and sighed, “Honestly, that’s basically it.”

“You’re gonna be playing the princess?”

She rubbed the back of her neck and her cheeks darkened, “Well yea, to be honest it’s my first time as the main character. The princess is so cool and beautiful but when I saw the dress they had that she was supposed to wear at the wedding, something she fights for and strives to accomplish the entire play. The wedding dress was such a letdown, it didn’t match the effort the princess put into the wedding!”

“So you got a little dispirited when you saw what was already prepared and since some new clothing was needed and they knew you knew a tailor they said that they’d let you handle the costumes and gave you the budget in the hope you could make a good deal for a bunch of clothes at a cheap price using a friends discount?”

She shrunk in on herself and folded her arms, “Basically.”

Aeric smiled, standing up to the protest of Xii and patted Reina on the shoulder, “I’ll make you a wedding dress this princess truly deserves. So, tell me about her. I’ll make the other costumes but I’ll put the most work into the wedding dress. A princess of the mist hmm? I already have plenty of ideas to run with. What color is your hair gonna be? Are you going to be taller? How do you walk as this princess?”

Aeric dragged Reina over to one of the little stools they used for measuring, Xii lazily lumbered after him, watching him grill her with various questions as he started taking her measurements. He asked about the princess’s personality, was she a lover or a fighter? Passionate or calm? Xii watched with a gentle smile as Aeric lost himself in his visualization, having taken Reina’s measurements and rushed over to the table to sketch various designs.

He leaned over his sketchbook as the piece of charcoal he used raced over the parchment while trying to remember the various styles of wedding dresses they used back home. Since the character was a princess of a misty land, then he could use thinner and more ethereal materials. The princess was a firm but somewhat antisocial character, she didn’t like the spotlight or showing too much of herself. Which meant the fabric couldn’t show too much of her skin. His mind kept jumping to the kind of dress he’d always imagined Lady Galadriel to be wearing. Something ethereal, almost otherworldly, something soft and wispy but stunningly beautiful.

It was going to be pure white, as white as he could manage with perhaps some small bit of luminescence. The princess herself had light blue hair, he could work with that but he still wanted the dress to be a monochrome white, no accessories for this piece. He wanted the dress to be enough even without any jewelry or crown or the like. The dress would speak for itself, it needed no aids to catch the attention.

For now he was thinking of a princess silhouette, which seemed the logical choice if he wanted a floaty whispy and ethereal dress that trailed behind the princess as she walked. With the help of some magic materials, he might be able to make a trailing length that nearly floated behind her. He was thinking of an off-shoulder cut and he was going to drop the use of lace and embroidery. The dress would need layers though, to showcase the slight curves the princess had without actually showing anything, the naked shoulders might be a bit too much so maybe he should add a shawl, worn back of neck, over front of shoulders and under and behind. Something that was part of the dress but floated alongside it, something that covered her shoulders but was just see-through enough to show her shoulders were actually bare.

Aeric felt the excitement take over and he furiously sketched the dress in the book. Jumped up when he was done and with a quick shout, let them know he was heading to Maddicks. He rushed over to the supplier and with a distracted wave to Grant headed over to the lightest materials, there were a few that were a white so pale they glowed. He touched them and anything that was too heavy or thick he put aside until he touched something that felt almost like what he expected clouds to feel like. Soft, like something was there but at the same time, it was so light you didn’t really feel any weight to it. The material was too see-through for his goals but if he combined it with some of the luminescent white cloth? He could use that for the floaty bits of the dress and he could make something more solid for actual cloth that would be worn.

He mumbled to himself as he rushed to the counter and tapped his foot impatiently as he waited behind another customer, he was mumbling below his breath and the woman before him kept glancing back at him with increasingly nervous looks until Grant smiled and told her something that turned her anxiety into curiosity. She finished her purchase and Aeric stepped to the front. Grant just eyed the materials, grabbed his purse, took some coins out and gave it back. Aeric grunted and muttered an incoherent thanks as he rushed back to the workshop.

Aeric nearly tossed himself back into his seat and started drawing out the patterns, forcefully calming himself down to keep his hand steady as his eyes flicked to the measurements. He flicked a hand and a mannequin appeared, eyed the proportions and nodded, made a slight adjustment to the pattern based on instinct, and then eyed the cloth. It wasn’t wide enough for what he had planned so he would have to find a way to fuse the material together without it being visible or causing a drop in quality.

He shrugged. If he remembered correctly Hurma also had a skill that could fuse cloth. He headed over and explained his problem, she shrugged, grabbed the two pieces and they fused together into a single piece before his very eyes. He blew her a kiss and quickly shouted a thanks before he grabbed the sheet of fabric and rushed back to his spot, he cut out the pattern and was already getting ready for the stitching when a hand landed on his shoulder.

“Time to relax, I know you’re in a creative fugue right now but the work day is done and you need some food in you.”

Aeric turned to the cruel interrupter of his passions and whined, “Do I have to, there’s still time to work on the dress.”

Xii rolled her eyes and grabbed his arm, dragging him out of his chair, “And there will be even more time tomorrow. You won’t be finished in a day or in one go, if you want quality, you’ll need quality sleep.”

Aeric groaned and rolled his head, before letting it slump as he melted into a pile of useless human which Xii dragged remorselessly up the stairs. She threw him into a chair and he laid his head on the table and spread himself out over it dramatically. “You evil witch, how dare you take me from my temptations.”

Xii eyed him before pushing him upright and sitting herself down in his lap, she leaned forward and placed both hands on his cheeks, “I am the temptation.” She ran a hand down his chest, over his stomach and with a squeeze he straightened up and his eyes widened.

She hopped off and winked at him, “Just making sure you remember that.”

Aeric coughed and scratched the back of his head, “Well it got my mind off work at least, I’ll admit that.”

Hurma chuckled as she sat down across from him, “Might have trouble sleeping now though. Too many exciti-”

“No sex talk at the table!” Yisirillia interrupted as she sat down, “I’m making that a new rule, don’t make me have Ali write it down!”

Aliami herself sat down in the chair next to the elf, “We should at least keep the meal time safe for everyone, hmm?”

Aeric grinned and opened his mouth, Yisirillia glared at him and pointed a knife at him. “Make one contraception joke and I swear I’ll stab you.”

He raised his hands innocently, “I was gonna do no such thing, just gonna say you look great today. Hospital visit go well?”

She frowned at him but put the knife down, “Almost completely rooted out the plague, people should be safe and it looks handled. Won’t ever know for sure till later but at least it seems handled at the moment.”

Treeka walked into the dining room with a hop and she stretched as she moved towards a chair and sat down next to Aeric. “Did I miss anything?”

Lshrkr followed the Avian and sat down on Aeric’s other side, “Aeric got a new custom commission from the local theatre group. He went into his ‘tinker state’.”

Aeric smirked, “I’m so glad you guys are picking up my terminology.”

Treeka grinned and winked at him, “How could I say no to otherworldly ways of speaking.”

“That sounds so much cooler than what is actually happening, I’m also utterly sure that you’d be a viral spreader of memes if I ever decide to actually do that.”

Treeka snorted, “I already know about your memes, they won’t be as viable without the thing you called the internet. I checked, tried it for a bit but making it costs entirely too much effort. Feels like sending out weird joke cards.”

“Yea they wouldn’t really be conducive to current times, I’ll admit.”

Lshrkr cocked her head, “I notice that you are no longer in your tinker state. You actually talk normally now.”

Aeric smirked and glanced over at Xii who was making food, she looked over and winked at him before placing her knife on a carrot and cutting it forcefully. He rolled his eyes at the display and looked back at Lshrkr, “Xii knocked me out. She’s right that it’s not exactly healthy and it’s better if I get good rest and food, it’ll help me focus on the clothing better. I hope.”

“No hoping, just believing!” Xii called as she looked back over her shoulder. “We can’t have you going completely insane every time you have an interesting project.”

“But that’s half the fun, time feels like it passes so fast whenever I’m absorbed in a project!”

“But it means you’re less lovey-dovey with me before I leave so I’m not having it!”

Aeric laughed, “Well I’ll give you that, it’s indeed quite the disadvantage. You saw the design though, what’d you think?”

Xii flipped the vegetable in the frying pan and looked back at him, “If you manage everything you wrote in the notes then it’ll be the best piece you’ve made so far.”

Aeric grinned and folded his hands, “I agree, now give me my dinner future-wife of mine so I may continue my work.”

She rolled her eyes but he noticed the telltale little twitch in her shoulder that told him she was both pleased and embarrassed by the comment.

The other girls rolled their eyes or added sounds of exasperation, once the meal was served they moved their conversations to the lounge and played a few of the board games to wind down. Drinking some of the fruit juices that they were particular to, and some of the smaller snacks that Xii had made for them to nibble on in between meals.