(Joat’s POV)

*Bang*

“Hah, hah…WE’RE ALIVE!” I drop and kiss the wooden floor, Thrash just lies down and even Miss Nameless sits on the floor breathing heavily

“Joat, stop being so overdramatic, it can’t have been that bad” Baila rolls her eyes while most of the people in Jenna’s place chuckle at the sight

“6 foot, 4 legged panthers with giant claws who run till the ends of the earth?”

“Ok, I was wrong, that must have been pretty bad”

“yeah, don’t know how we lived through that” My trio are all mildly confused.

Those panthers was extremely nasty…especially since there were 3 of them.

Luckily night variants seem to be slower, so we weren’t caught…but we left a trail of smashed trees behind us.

They let up once we got to the village, but that must have been way outside their natural agro zone.

Must be because the Narcotine was some sort of catnip to them?

I’ll never know, but I know I won’t be going there for a while.

“Everyone, well done you’ve all brought back some flowers for dyeing” Jenna steals the spotlight from us.

“So what do we-”

“Crush them and stick them in water”

At least she doesn’t shout…but still, let me finish my sentence.

Dragging myself to a stand and then helping Miss Nameless off the floor, we head to our workbenches.

Jenna places a large washbasin on each of our workbenches and fills them with steaming water.

“Quickly, before it cools”

Ok

“Does anyone have Moondrop flowers to trade with?”

“I do” PJ raises her hand excitedly. Nice, someone got some.

I swear I see PinkyS twitch slightly

“I’ve got Narcotine to trade with”

She definitely twitched

“1 to 1?”

“Sounds fair, how much you have?”

“I’ll give you 20?”

“Sounds good with me”

I quickly trade for 20 Moondrop flowers.

While I do that, I see the raven-lady and her followers happily using their own narcotine berries.

“I’m looking for some Fireflowers, anybody got some?”

“MEEE” Jesus, you’re way too excited

“1 for 1?”

“How many, I’ll take as many as you can give”

“I can give 30”

That’ll only leave me with 33 but getting 30 fire flowers, is pretty much essential since it’s a primary colour.

“GIVE IT please” I think PJ and Pinky must have switched…or maybe she just likes black?

I don’t know, but I think I should care, just a feeling.

Anyways, I trade the berries and with everything set, I’m ready to make some coloured leather.

“So what do we do?” Miss Nameless asks me curiously while everyone else heads off to do their own thing.

Thrash raises his eyebrow from the floor…he’s still lying there, that’s what you get for showing off your muscles for three hours.

“WE don’t do anything…you will watch and learn how to make colours”

“Ok, that sounds like fun” She doesn’t jump up and down in joy like her face suggests…must be because Sharpy is in view?

No time to waste!

First, I crush some leaves in my hand and immerse it in the hot water. After a few seconds the green starts coming off from the leaves. Perfect.

Next I grab some forest berries and crush that in the water too.

Mix it round for a couple of seconds and voila it’s brown.

I glance at Miss Nameless who looks wide eyed

“Green and red mix into brown, however green isn’t a primary colour”

“You mentioned the primary colours earlier, what do you mean by that?”

Hmm the brown is a bit dark, crush a bit of Narcissus’ and add those in

“There are 3 primary colours; blue, red and yellow. All colours in the spectrum can be made using

these three”

“So you can make white with these colours?”

“no, since white is a tint not a colour”

Brown is a nice light colour now. I motion for her boots, which she takes off, tripping in the process while slapping me with the removed boot

…

..

.

Maybe I should have told her that it’s difficult to take them off

“So it’s different?” She gets back up and acts like nothing happened, while burning red

I place the boots in the water and start rubbing the boots to get some colour in them

“It is, white and black are called tints because theoretically they aren’t colours. White cannot be

made with the primary colours whereas the overmixture of any colours will inevitable turn to black”

“I think I get it”

“So that’s why it’s important to have a lot of white to work with”

“because you can’t make more with what we have?”

“Exactly”

She thinks on it for a short time, while I move the boots in and out of the water.

Good thing that the water is hot, so the colour easily mixes into the darkish leather.

After a couple of strains, the boots are no longer a dark muddy leather but more of a well tanned colour. Hmm, this should do just fine.

Next is the gloves.

She takes them off and I trade her the boots pointing to the rack.

She goes off to hang them while I colour her gloves.

I take in another couple of Narcissus’ and mix it in making the water a very pale brown. Hmm this should do, always better to be lighter than darker when using colours.

The gloves go in after the water stills, but I don’t fully immerse them; I leave the edge out of the water, thus keeping the edge a darker tone of brown.

I hear a heavy person sit down beside me; must be Thrash…yep it is.

He looks decently interested with what I’m doing, but only decently.

Anyways, I let the gloves get to a slightly lighter colour than the boots, because if the boots and gloves are the same colour it doesn’t look right.

People always think wearing gloves and boots of matching colours looks nice, in short it doesn’t.

When dressing they must always have a light gradient from top to bottom or bottom to top.

I give quick instructions to leave the gloves hanging fingers to the floor, so that the dark ring at the end isn’t disrupted.

Hmm, should I do that with the boots too? Might as well do that later.

“Jenna, can I get some fresh water over here?”

“You can, get it yourself”

“Fro-”

“There’s a well outside”

“And-”

“You can use the fireplace” She motions behind her.

I appreciate that she can pretty much read my mind but still…I want to finish my question.

I give Thrash waterboy duties. Which he does dutifully. While he’s gone, I sit Miss Nameless down for an explanation on the importance of 3.

…

“Ok, so repeat to me what you just learnt”

“The importance of 3 is that you only ever use 3 different colours in your clothing”

“Exactly”

“However 1 of those colours, usually the contraster colour can have different tones. Also, the main 2 colours have to be complimentary whereas the contraster colour usually contrasts or doesn’t compliment the other colours”

She’s pretty good at memorizing; I just told her once and she’s remembered it pretty much word to word. That’s some scary memorization ability.

Thrash finishes heating the water and brings the basin over to my workbench

“Thank you Thrash”

He grins and then goes back to watching me colour things

“Girl”

NO! Guys can colour things too, albeit we’re usually not the best at things to do with clothes…

Agh, I’m going to ignore you and get back to my work.

The shirt is next. Jesus Miss Nameless, be a bit more shameful and don’t strip in public!

Though I glance at Baila and yep, she looks good in that grey bra.

-1

Whoops, wipe that off quickly!

Usually the shirt is checked, however that isn’t possible, so a plain white will do just fine.

Crushing some more Narcissus’ I watch the white go a milky white and then I immerse the shirt in.

Good thing with hot water is that it makes the leather a bit more malleable, a bit. Thus it’s easier to make sure it’s coloured everywhere. However I wish I had a sponge or something to make this colouring easier.

After a couple of minutes, the shirt is a bright white…perfect.

I give her the shirt to hang up to dry.

“Why are you using white? I thought it was a tint?”

She looks at the shirt slightly confused

“Well for the rule of 3, white counts as a colour and white is technically complimentary to every colour so it’s a safe choice when choosing clothes”

“Hmm, so the same is with black?”

“Yes, however black does make the outfit as a whole seem darker, which isn’t always good”

“I see”

“Pass me your hat”

“You’re making it white?”

“Cowgirl hats are usually either; white, black or tan. I could do it tan or white since black would clash but I’m going to break that idea and make it a light tan”

“Why?” She seems confused as to why I just broke that idea…I don’t blame her.

“Because the white would be too monochromatic…too one coloured, along with the shirt and tan would contrast with the boots, which we don’t want”

“Mhm”

“I said earlier that we want to have a single smooth gradient of contraster colours so really the only colour it can be, is a very pale tan”

“Right, that makes sense?” She sounds sort of like she gets it…sort of. Well I am pushing some odd ideas onto her.

“Yep, now let me show you how to make brown from the primaries, since I was a bit lazy before”

“Ok..so green is a…”

“A secondary colour, made from blue and yellow”

I crush some Moondrop Flowers and some Fireflowers, making sure to get rid of the orange rims before I crush them into the water.

The water goes a lime green and I then add some forest berries making it an extremely pale brown, almost white, but not quite.

Dunking the hat in, I leave it there for a few minutes until the colour has changed.

Giving that to Miss Nameless to dry, I now ask for her shorts.

My god, seriously…I’m never going to get used to her shameless stripping…

Nevermind her.

I succintly make the water a light cream coloured with the addition of a bit more Narcissus, because it's too much time *and effort) to get another bucket and make it white and yada yada. Anyways, it's a slightly dirty white all in all so that's honestly a better suited colour in my opinion.

I dip the shorts in, along with the sock (I’m just going to call it all shorts from now, much simpler) but don’t give her the shorts. Instead I leave them on the workbench to her confusion.

I give the basin for renewing to Thrash, who doesn’t really mind being the water boy.

“Ok, guess what colour will work for your shorts”

“Hmm, green? Since brown and green go well” She looks confused, she thought I was going white

“…Well, yes? But that’d be a bit garish”

“Garish?”

“It will fit but it will also feel a bit off. Especially with the outfit and your slightly grayish skin colour”

“oh, skin colour matters?”

“A decent amount, lighter clothing may clash with darker skinned people while darker clothing may clash with lighter skinned people. Usually you’d want your clothing to compliment your skin colour”

“So, I need to wear colours will compliment my slightly gray skin?”

“Yes…”

“I think I get it, but then really it’s a rule of 4?”

“True, though not exactly but that’s for a more complex lesson. For your shorts, I will use Denim…it’s a tone of blue” She looked confused when I said denim…She really has never worn anything but dresses then…Wow, I feel slightly sorry for her.

I’m only going through some basics with her so she’ll have some slight idea how to dress from now on. Actually I’m quite worried about what she wears normally…

I see Thrash walk back in and wait in line for the fireplace. The horsehead beastman is busy heating his waterbasin…nope it’s the raven-beastlady’s.

“So, what is this denim…I’ve never heard of that colour before”

‘Well in reality it isn’t a colour...it’s a distinctive type of clothing which usually are a darkish blue colour. It’s mostly street lingo and mass media that marketed ‘denim’ as an actually colour rather than it really being one”

“So, people wear denim all the time”

In the 21st century yes

“Yes, it is normal clothing for most people, it is the ‘casual’ clothing that is most popular with people”

“Hmm, I might have to get myself some denim”

“Yes you should, A nice denim jacket might go well with your dresses”

“So denim is for everything?”

“I mean it used to be just for trousers but it’s expanded to jackets, gloves, hats and even shoes…it’s a bit strange but that’s how fashion goes”

“Fashion…are dresses in fashion?”

A couple of centuries ago, yes

“Yes, they are still decently in fashion…depends on who you are”

So for you, they’re top of the market…

Thrash plops the basin of water on my workbench.

Ah time to get back to work

“Thanks Thrash”

Ok, so to get denim…Let’s start with blue.

Making the water blue through crushed Moondrops…what a surprise; it doesn’t start that colour. Water is actually colourless…well pure water at least.

So I make it a blue and then crush one Narcotine Berry.

Always got to be careful with black, becauss once you go black you never go back.

Number 1 rule with colour mixing; a little black has a hell of a lot of effect.

Sure enough, that one berry darkened the blue by a couple of tones. Jeez black is always so strong.

I crush another Narcoberry, but instead of immersing it like always; I let the squeezed liquid drop into the coloured water.

This way only a bit is mixed in.

Mixing it for a couple of seconds, it’s reached the dark blue colour that most can call denim.

Ok, it’s time.

I pick up the shorts and then wave them around letting them cool down and the dye to dry.

Once dry, I immerse them into the coloured water.

Essentially, once dyed, a leather won’t easily be re-coloured. The new dye will just stick on top of the old dye, which is exactly what I want.

After a minute or so of moving the shorts around the water, I take it out and quickly use it as a fan.

Denim coloured liquid flies around the place causing many people to throw some insults at me…or their knife in Baila’s case.

-1

God dammit Baila.

Ok, is it done?

Perfect!

The way that dark blue and denim are different, is the fact that denim has extremely thin white lines to give it that look. Because I had a white underlayer, the blue didn’t stick as well and thus these lines, albeit a bit big, were created when fanning the shorts around.

Also, since it’s not beautifully stuck…I can use the knife Baila so kindly gave me to alter it how I want.

Using the knife’s flat edge, I smoothen the blue dye across the leather and then start tracing lines down the shorts with the edge of the knife.

Using little pressure, it doesn’t damage the leather and it makes the lines a bit nicer looking too.

Also I fully scrape off the blue around the rough edges, leaving white in the rough parts.

Now that looks good!

I give the denim shorts to Miss Nameless to hang up and then she stands there kind of awkwardly in nothing but her underwear…

I should have thought this out better…

Sharpy can you stop ripping me to shreds with your eyes, please? I didn’t think of this.

Luckily, I don’t feel any more gazes from other people…is it because they all think this is normal now?

Well whatever, at least I’m done now

…

..

.

Ah wait…dammit, I’ve forgotten one important thing. Well I’m not sure, but I have a feeling she won’t object?

“Miss, can you-

*SHIVER*

-Ask Jenna for a changing room”

I swear I just had this image of being mutilated by Sharpy in the most horrible ways…

Thank god I changed what I was going to say, or I think that image may have been my near future…

“Why do I need a changing room?” She’s confused, she’s given me all her clothes

“Well I need your undergarments for colouring”

…

..

.

The whole room falls silent. What? You think I’m going to leave them grey? That’s terrible,

especially since some of her bra and underwear is showing when she wears the outfit. It ruins it.

“Sure, but what colour would you make them?”

“Black” I mean that’s not an option, white is just too innocent and black clashes yet coincides with the outfit as a whole.

*TWITCH*

…

..

.

If twitching could be heard there’d be raging thunderstorms here. I think everyone here twitched…well they do know that black underwear is a bit…boisterous…

I don’t think Miss Nameless knows though because she looks happy with the colour scheme.

Sharpy, don’t gore me to death with your eyes, please?

I glance at him to see his skull quiver slightly, non-stop. That’s hell of a lot of twitching he’s doing there…I’m so dead when he recovers.

I give Miss Nameless a little push and with Jenna, who only got a little shocked at my statement

(Maybe she thought it was kind of normal too?), she left the room.

A minute later, Jenna comes back out with both the bra and underpants on her.

Thank you…I’m going to ignore the strange looks everyone is giving me…

Ok, so let’s start with the bra.

“Thrash, go heat up the water”

“Eh?...Oh, ok” He was still a little out of it, it seems. Maybe…oh no. oh no! I have a very bad feeling when it comes to his turn…

He goes to heat up the water and I start cutting away at the bra.

I mean come on, it’s like a granny bra, quite nasty.

So I cut it away, until it’s a bit bigger than the shirt, so that some is visible from underneath the shirt, mostly hopefully around the bust area.

Perfect.

Ok on to the underwear.

Hmm…just how much do I want to be murdered by Sharpy; Killed a couple of hundred times, or chased to the end of the earth until my body and soul have been pulverized into nothing?

That’s a hard choice…I mean I really do want to see his face when he sees what I’ve done.

Also, she’s a sheltered girl, she needs one, for modernisms sake!

I’m not being perverted at all, she needs these kinds of clothes.

I immediately cut away at the underwear till there’s…pretty much nothing left.

…

..

.

Silence and gazes ranging from ‘I’ll chase you to the ends of the earth and pulverize your body and soul’ to ‘I want that’…

I glance at Sharpy, and sure enough, he’s having quite a nervous twitch; his head is quivering violently while his right arm and leg are twitching uncontrollably.

Well I would say he’s having a spasm attack, if not for knowledge that he’s probably her father…

Though he doesn’t stop me…so I’m a bit confused about his behaviour.

Ah nevermind, it was totally worth seeing him spasm like he’s been electrocuted. He’s going to kill me anyway, might as well make the death’s worth it.

Thrash comes back with the water and after crushing multiple Narcotine berries; I douse the undergarments and make them black.

Taking the underwear out, I give them to Jenna who with a curious gaze at them, exits to another room.

Jenna comes out and I have a look at the drying clothes while I wait

…

..

.

Wait a second…she’s not wearing anything but-

“Joat, thank you for these, they are very comfortable even if they look a little small”

…

..

.

DO YOU HAVE NO SHAME!?

I turn round to see Miss Nameless wearing the chest-hugging black bra, quite cute, and the g-string...

“Though, I don’t know why there isn’t much at the back, you see”

-4

-5

VIT!

-8

Aaah, I’m going to die!

I just thank the gods she doesn’t have a ghetto ass, or I might have actually died then and there...but I did have to give myself the Vit stat to survive…

Lying in my own pool of blood, I hear the death throes of the horse-beastman and the dead

gargles of a dwarf…WHOOPS.

*THUNK*

Sharpy lands next to me, completely motionless, but not dead it seems.

…

..

.

Right, never underestimate a shameless zombie with a little ass…

My lesson is learned as I lie in my pool of blood

“Why is everyone bleeding, did something happen?”

Oh, you…

…

…

(PJ’s POV)

“GIVE IT please” Seniour really wants those narcotine berries…

Just what is she thinking?

I let her do her own thing and focus on Sharpy.

Ok, so lets make it white first.

As I’m crushing the Narcissus’ I hear a small conversation starting

“So what do we do?” I hear the She-zombie ask.

“WE don’t do anything…you will watch and learn how to make colours” Joat answers her

“Ok, that sounds like fun”

“Green and red mix into brown, however green isn’t a primary colour”

He’s doing a lecture?

“You mentioned the primary colours earlier, what do you mean by that?”

“There are 3 primary colours; blue, red and yellow. All colours in the spectrum can be made using these three”

“So you can make white with these colours?”

“no, since white is a tint not a colour”

I tune out of the conversation somewhat, since it’s not something new to me. I’ve dabbled with colours before.

Ok, so the water goes white and I get Sharpy’s shirt off.

Dunking it in, I swirl it round for a minute or two till the leather gets dyed.

Giving the white shirt back to Sharpy, he hangs it up to dry.

Ok, next is black.

I chuck in most of the Narcotine Berries, because I just want a deep black.

He passes me his shoes, trousers and long-sleeved jacket, which looks sort of like a suit.

Dunking those in and swirling them around, they quickly go black.

Oh I can’t wait to see him wearing this.

I give the clothes to him so he can hang them to try.

Well that was simple…Guess it’s my turn?

…

…

(Baila’s POV)

“Ok, done” I say to Big Sis as she looks over my shoulder.

“I like it!”

She hops away with the black set of clothes and hang them to dry.

She really should have a little bit of shame, since hopping around in underwear is giving those-

…

..

.

No one is looking…

Wow, that’s a bit insane, how is no one looking? The three guys around the raven-beastlady are solely focused on her, while Joat is zoning out with colouring. The wolf guy, Thrash I believe I heard him say, is just looking at Joat and his work. Even the skeleton guy isn’t looking this way.

Well that’s odd. Is everyone really that into colouring their clothes?

I can faintly hear some instructions on something he’s calling the importance of 3?

Ok, never heard of that before. But I can see the logic behind it; wearing too many colours does cause clashes and makes you look a bit motley.

Ah, I swear I just felt someone's gaze. Well I did take off my clothes...

Big Sis comes back with a deep pout on her face...did she want Joat to see or something?

I’m really going to have to get a leash on her because it’s my Joat, my friend and she’s being a bit, lovestruck? I’m not quite sure yet, but it’s something along those lines.

Anyways, it’s my turn to have my stuff coloured.

…

Hmm, it looks a bit like a...schoolgirl outfit.

I’ve basically got a white short-sleeved shirt with blue rims, blue shorts and black shoes with white socks reaching my knee. I’ve also got gloves that come up pretty much the whole arm.

If I had blond pigtails and a tiara…I think I’d probably pass off as a Sailor Moon cosplay girl…

That isn’t good. But I do like the schoolgirl look.

“Well I need your undergarments for colouring”

…

..

.

WHAAAT? JOAT, YOU PERV! Although I would like to have different coloured underwear, this grey sucks. Damn, i've already thrown my knife at him...

“Sure, but what colour would you make them?”

“Black”

*TWITCH*

…

..

.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who had a twitch attack…girls only wear black underwear for a reason…

Joat, me and you are going to have to talk…

Though the She-Zombie looks happy when he mentions that…Joat, just what have you been doing this past day?

The She-zombie and Jenna leave into another room

A minute later, Jenna comes back out with both the bra and underpants on her.

Joat, I’m going to judge how clean your execution will be, depending on what you do next…

He starts with the bra

“Thrash, go heat up the water”

“Eh?...Oh, ok” Thrash is a little out of it, I don’t blame him.

He goes to heat up the water and Joat starts cutting away at the bra.

Joat…good choice. I mean it’s a bit of a granny bra so I think he’s got the right idea…but I’m still not happy.

He finishes it off quickly and then looks at it with a happy smile. You perv.

He moves onto the underwear. But he doesn’t do anything to it. He just looks at it in deep debate

…

..

.

Joat, don’t you dare do what you’re thinking…

He finishes his internal debate after some time and then starts cutting away. He continues cutting away and cutting away until…there’s pretty much nothing left.

…

..

.

I want that…but I’ll also chase you to the ends of the earth to kill you for making such a thing too…for someone else. I mean any woman who’s worn one of those knows how comfortable they are.

I can feel everyone else’s intense gazes direct towards Joat.

Thrash comes back with the water and after crushing multiple Narcotine berries; he dyes both undergarments black.

Taking the underwear out, he gives them to Jenna who with a curious gaze at them, exits to another room.

Joat, I’ve decided you shall be executed…after you make underwear for me.

While I gaze at him unerringly I hear sounds come from the other room.

…

..

.

Wait a second…she’s not wearing anything but-

“Joat, thank you for these, they are very comfortable even if they look a little small”

…

..

.

I THOUGHT SHE HAD NO SHAME BUT NOW I KNOW!

I turn round to see the She-Zombie wearing the chest-hugging black bra and the g-string...

“Though, I don’t know why there isn’t much at the back, you see” She turns round towards the crowd

*SPURT*

Blood starts flying everywhere. I hear the hoarse cry from the horse-beastman as he falls to the floor dead along with the dwarf while all the other guys drop to the floor trying to stem the large blood flowing from their eyes and nose.

*THUNK*

The skeleton just dropped down unconscious…wow, that view must have hit him hard.

"If only I had those clothes" I hear Big Sis whisper in wonder at the bloody sight

JOAT…don't you ever dare to make Big Sis these clothes...

Nobody does anything for a few seconds and soon the four remaining guys are lying in pools of their own blood (well the skeleton is lying in Joat’s)…

“Why is everyone bleeding, did something happen?”

…

..

.

Wow…just wow…